Afrigather JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention (ECAP) is saying that it’ll launch its Child Safety Accreditation Program for Christian ministries that serve youngsters on January 9th, 2023.
ECAP was created in 2019 to supply heightened consciousness, accreditation, and extra sources with a purpose to assist Christian organizations that serve youngsters shield the susceptible in ministry.
Accreditation is an unbiased strategy of compliance verification that determines if a corporation meets outlined security requirements. ECAP awards accreditation to ministries that display compliance with Child Safety Standards by way of a strategy of audit and evaluation. The Accreditation Program assists ministry leaders by validating compliance with Requirements that describe the weather of a Baby Safety Program (CPP) that ought to be in place to forestall abuse. The accreditation course of builds layers of safety, leading to peace of thoughts for leaders, mother and father, and different ministry stakeholders.
Following the mannequin of ministries such because the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), ECAP hopes to normalize little one safety in ministry, elevating the usual for Christian organizations and their accountability to care for youths.
“ECAP exists to deliver the very best from the world of security and danger administration to ministry leaders in a method that respects organizational autonomy and motivates leaders to tackle Christ’s name to take care of the susceptible and the least of those: youngsters,” mentioned Briggham Winkler, ECAP’s Normal Editor. “It’s our hope that ECAP membership can be a witness to the world, demonstrating God’s love for youngsters and declaring, ‘This group cares for the bodily and non secular well-being of youngsters.’”
In 2022, ECAP started the Constitution Part of its Accreditation Program, additional aiding many organizations that are actually in varied levels of the accreditation course of. ECAP has refined its course of to incorporate six primary steps: Utility, Self-Examine, Distant Evaluation, Validation Go to, Determination, and Annual Renewal.
Together with the Program’s launch, ECAP will launch model 1.3 of its Baby Security Requirements with a number of clarifying updates, though the substance of the Requirements has remained the identical. ECAP’s Baby Security Requirements are divided into 5 classes: Governance, Baby Security Operations, Screening, Coaching, and Response.
In response to Kevin White, chief working officer of Awana, the launch of ECAP’s Accreditation Program displays how “efficient little one discipleship begins with secure environments. We’re excited to see ECAP’s Accreditation Program launching, which can assist leaders and supply mother and father with assurance that the ministry they belief with their youngsters’ well-being prioritizes little one security.”
The aim of the Accreditation Program is to encourage each accountability and sustainability in little one safety for ministries that serve youngsters. In response to Jennifer Greenberg, abuse survivor and creator of Not Forsaken: A Story of Life After Abuse, “What ECAP affords ministries is credibility. As a mom and little one abuse survivor, understanding {that a} church has been accredited by an goal third social gathering provides me peace of thoughts. I do know they’re not simply operating background checks and so they’re not simply checking off containers to appease their insurance coverage supplier. They’re taking actual and proactive steps to take care of security requirements that honor God.”
Afshin Ziafat serves as lead pastor of Windfall Church in Frisco, Texas–ECAP’s first absolutely accredited constitution member. Pastor Ziafat has noticed, “Pastors are to shepherd the flock God has given them by feeding and caring for them in addition to defending them, particularly probably the most susceptible. I’m so grateful for the providers of ECAP in serving to us create a secure surroundings for our individuals, particularly our kids and youth, to listen to the saving information of the Gospel. With the assistance of ECAP Baby Security Requirements, our safety is bigger than it has ever been. Our volunteers can give attention to the duty at hand whereas being empowered to acknowledge and reply to indicators of abuse in the event that they come up. One other additional advantage of getting gone by way of the accreditation course of is that our kids’s ministry, youth ministry, and neighborhood teams ministry are extra aligned and conscious of our insurance policies, their tasks, and deal with conditions than earlier than the accreditation course of. The ECAP accreditation course of will information these ministries for years to return.”
Alongside the Accreditation Program, ECAP is launching an Affiliate Member Program, which permits like-minded ministries and different nonprofit organizations to hitch them in creating secure ministry environments.
To be able to assist ministries develop ECAP-compliant Baby Safety Applications, ECAP additionally hopes to start a grant program, particularly for organizations that want to supply for Baby Security, however lack the sources for improvement and implementation. You possibly can assist help this grant here.
To study extra about ECAP’s accreditation course of or submit an software, you may go to ECAP’s Accreditation Page, or read an interview with Jeremy Herron, the director of Windfall Youngsters at Windfall Church. Extra resources and articles on Baby Security and Abuse Prevention may be discovered at ecap.net.
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Contact:
Briggham Winkler
Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the authors and don’t essentially replicate the official coverage or place of Faith Information Service or Faith Information Basis.
