Youth Conference Incident Reporting
We know that it is important to frequently clarify how, to whom, and what to report. The following is meant to help clarify expectations with youth, parents, and adult chaparones about when and to whom to report disturbing incidents:
In General
Whenever there is disturbing behavior on the part of any participant in a CER youth ministry event or known behavior outside events that compromises an individual’s ability to feel safe at an event, those with knowledge should always come forward.
For Youth
Parents, too, may come to know something before their youth is ready to come forward on their own. Please, always come to the First Unitarian Religious educator and/or minister or to call Rev Evin Carvill-Ziemer, CER Staff (phone (330) 281-3306 | [email protected]) if you hear disturbing stories from your youth. Understand that your youth is still learning and growing and that reporting hard stuff is hard. Youth need help coming forward. If they trust you enough to tell you what’s going on, they need your help. And it is important for parents, too, to think of other youth, other parents’ children, and help those entrusted with the safety of our youth to know what happened.
Adult Youth CON Chaparones at Youth Ministry Events
We consider you mandated reporters (whether legally required to be or not) and expect you to report anything that has harmed or threatens to harm youth. This includes any form of self-harm, predatory or abusive intimate relationships, bullying, suicidal ideation, sexual relationships which fall under statutory rape laws, and any other circumstances that prevent us from keeping a youth safe. This include substance use/abuse and other risky behavior. It also includes any behavior from youth or adults that makes our youth ministry unsafe for other participants including youth breaking the behavioral expectations You should expect the same candor from youth under your care and we expect you to clearly communicate the kinds of things you expect to be told about if youth knows about them.
In General
Whenever there is disturbing behavior on the part of any participant in a CER youth ministry event or known behavior outside events that compromises an individual’s ability to feel safe at an event, those with knowledge should always come forward.
For Youth
- To whom can you report? Youth can ask a peer chaplain or YAC member to help them come forward. You can report to the local religious professionals. You can report to the adults on YAC. You can contact regional staff for youth ministry including Shannon Harper or or Rev Even Carvill-Ziemer, or any other staff member. You may report during youth events, at all hours, to leaders, including chaplains, at the event.
- Should I report? We encourage youth to come forward even if you're not sure if you should or not. We’d rather you come to an adult on YAC, local religious professionals, with “if something like this happens, should I tell?” rather than try to resolve this on your own. Even bringing forward a hypothetical “asking for a friend” question allows the responsible adults, to support you and coach you through your thinking. Often you might have questions about what will happen if you report, and event leadership can offer information and reassurance. When youth think that they need to resolve on their own the question of whether or not to report, it is harder to come forward.
- What should I report? We encourage youth to come forward with anything “uncomfortable” or “weird.” And we encourage you not just to think about if you personally need assistance with what happened, but to consider that such uncomfortable, weird, or disturbing events could happen to another youth and we need your help to protect those youth. First it is not easy to recognize many traumatizing things as trauma—they’re “weird” (strange, uncomfortable, etc.). The nature of trauma is to distort our perception of events and undermine our confidence in our perception of the event. Second, the human brain has an amazing capacity to rationalize and avoid seeing ourselves as victims needing help (who wants to be a victim—helpless?). So we encourage youth come forward quickly,
Parents, too, may come to know something before their youth is ready to come forward on their own. Please, always come to the First Unitarian Religious educator and/or minister or to call Rev Evin Carvill-Ziemer, CER Staff (phone (330) 281-3306 | [email protected]) if you hear disturbing stories from your youth. Understand that your youth is still learning and growing and that reporting hard stuff is hard. Youth need help coming forward. If they trust you enough to tell you what’s going on, they need your help. And it is important for parents, too, to think of other youth, other parents’ children, and help those entrusted with the safety of our youth to know what happened.
Adult Youth CON Chaparones at Youth Ministry Events
We consider you mandated reporters (whether legally required to be or not) and expect you to report anything that has harmed or threatens to harm youth. This includes any form of self-harm, predatory or abusive intimate relationships, bullying, suicidal ideation, sexual relationships which fall under statutory rape laws, and any other circumstances that prevent us from keeping a youth safe. This include substance use/abuse and other risky behavior. It also includes any behavior from youth or adults that makes our youth ministry unsafe for other participants including youth breaking the behavioral expectations You should expect the same candor from youth under your care and we expect you to clearly communicate the kinds of things you expect to be told about if youth knows about them.