Our congregations strive to be safe and welcoming places to all. It is impossible to make a congregation 100% safe; however, there are steps that you can take to make your congregation safer while still creating a supportive space for learning, growth, and challenge as well as actively working for the inclusion and safety of all people.
Safety is about more than policies that are focused on keeping children and youth safe from harm in our congregations. Congregational safety includes financial policies, facility management, building security, plans for fire safety and other potential disasters, and responding to outside threats. It also includes behavioral covenants, and disruptive persons policies.
The best time to create these policies is not when you are in a crisis or trying to recover from one. The best time is when you aren’t actively using or needing them. We encourage your congregation to assemble a task force to consider what policies you need, or to review your current policies to see if they need updated.
The UUA has pages on the UUA website to help congregations learn about procedures and help you create policies tailored to your congregation’s needs, facilities and state laws. It is difficult for us to give sample policies due to the uniqueness of every congregation’s situation. If your congregation doesn’t have a safety policy, or only has one that addresses child and youth safety, we encourage you to check these resources:
- The Becoming a Safer Congregation: A UU Guide to Effective Safety Policies and Practices which is a comprehensive guide to keeping people of all ages safer from physical and emotional harm. You’ll find detailed guidance and checklists for how you can implement effective policies and practices throughout your congregation.
- The Safe Congregations Where to Begin Webinar presented by the Mid-America region. The recording is available on LeaderLab.
- UU Institute has several classes focused on safety and related issues. Fostering Safer Congregations, Threats from Without, Care from Within, and Covenant Calls Us In: The Why of Covenanting
- Additional resources for other areas of safety can be found on the Safer Congregations section of the website.
If you need help with safety policies for your congregation, ask your primary contact and they can refer you to one of our safe congregations representatives as needed. The UUA Safe Congregations Team includes Congregational Life staff from each region of the UUA, and from the UUA Office of Ethics and Safety. Rev. Sana Saeed and Beth Casebolt represent the Central East Region.