Creating safety in community is a complex and multilayered process. We’re talking about physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual, and psychological safety in children and youth religious education spaces as well as in the full multigenerational congregation.
We know that we can’t create communities where no harm ever happens. And. We can create the layers of both policy and culture that prevent both some of the worst harm and empower our communities to heal when harm does happen.
Creating safer congregations includes not only policy, but also:
- Training not only of staff and volunteers but also of families and youth
- Weaving abuse prevention into our faith formation programs through OWL and other ways
- Using covenant to empower members of our community to co-create safer spaces
Working as a team among staff, minister, volunteers, lay leaders, and larger congregation - Transparency and communication with our families, children, and youth
- Centering our UU values
- Creating inclusive community especially paying attention to those with historically marginalized identities and disabilities including neurodivergence.
- Paying attention to the power imbalance between adults and children and between children and youth of difference ages
We encourage you to seek out UUA resources on disability inclusion, neurodivergence, anti-racism and dismantling white supremacy culture, and community resilience as key part of creating safe(r) congregations for all.
The collection of resources below is focused on safety for children and youth in our faith formation programs and wider congregation. We’ve included the policies the UUA uses at our events as a reference.
This collection is a supplement to the Safer Congregations’ policy recommendations for congregations linked here:
Safety for Children and Youth
These guidelines will help you create a set of policies that are developmentally appropriate for your children and youth.