Conversation Circles: Protecting Our Children

Child Safety in Meetings

Quaker communities offer a valuable opportunity for friendship and mentorship across generations. At the same time, the trust that lies at the heart of friendships needs to be grounded in concern for safety in any multigenerational community where adults are with children. To feel truly welcomed, families need to know that the Meeting honors boundaries, that child safety is discussed, and the Meeting is doing whatever is necessary to create a safe and welcoming space where children and youth can experience community.

View the VIDEO of the March 15 presentation from Juliet Prager and Mark Mitchell staff of the Britain Yearly Meeting Safeguarding Program. The Thursday conversation will be a Sharing Circle of questions, experience, strategies and concerns about child safety policies and practices in Friends’ face to face and online gatherings.

Queries:

• How can we balance the transformative possibilities of adult-child friendships in Meetings while creating a safety net to ensure that all relationships are healthy and grounded in Spirit?
• How can we create a culture of safety in our Meetings?
• How can meetings welcome every person as a child of God, yet safeguard our children from those who may—inadvertently or intentionally—pass their trauma along to our children?
• What can we learn from Quaker organizations and other churches about protecting children from abuse at the hands of people in the Meeting, especially those who work with our children and youth?

Conversation Starters: 

• Juliet Prager, Deputy Recording Clerk, Britain Yearly Meeting
• Mark Mitchell, Safeguarding Officer, Britain Yearly Meeting

Facilitators:

TUE: Windy Cooler, Sandy Spring, BYM

THU: Andrew Wright, Durham NC

Resources:

• Friends Journal, Safety in Meetings, March 2022
• Safety First: Why You Absolutely Can’t Skip Background Checks, Bob D’Ambrosio, childrensministry.com
• Developing a Child Abuse Prevention Policy: A Monthly Meeting Resource, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
• Child Safety Policy, Durham Friends, NC
• Stewards of Children® Prevention Training, Darkness to Light
• Northern Yearly Meeting Children and Youth Policy Manual, NYM Children and Youth Committee.
• Safeguarding, Britain Yearly Meeting
• Safe Quaker Community, Australia Yearly Meeting
• Safe Communities: united to end child sexual abuse
• NEYM Child Safety for Virtual Youth Programs ,New England Yearly Meeting
• Guidance and Practices for Online Youth Gatherings when participants are under the age of 18, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Children’s Resources:

• I Said No! A kid-to-kid guide to keeping private parts private, Kimberly King (ages 6-9)
• No Means No! By Jayneen Sanders, Illustrated by Cherle Zamazing (ages 4-6)

Learn more: Visit the QREC Resource Library and subscribe to our announcements