Reducing the Risk 3rd Edition -- Keeping Your Ministry Safe from Child Sexual Abuse

Purchase Online Now
(or order toll free by calling 800-222-1840

The purpose of Reducing the Risk 3rd Edition is to provide churches and ministries with a comprehensive prevention program to strengthen the security of youth and children's ministry programs. This kit replaces the original Reducing the Risk and Reducing the Risk Kit II.

Bulk Orders

About the Resources

Training DVD: Ten video presentations are included on your Training DVD. This DVD is ideal for training individuals, small groups, or your entire congregation. The DVD engages both the head and heart, offering personal stories along with practical, how-toteaching. To get started, go to "Start Training Tracks" on the Training DVD. Select the appropriate track for your ministry role. Depending on your role, you may not have to view every segment. Here's what's covered in the videos:

• Video #1. "Child Protection as the Foundation of Your Ministry." Children's ministry director David Staal introduces the problem of child sexual abuse in ministries. This segment gets people invested in solving this safety issue by engaging them, heart and mind. It should be the first presentation that you view and show.
  
  
• Video #2. "A Victim's Story." This segment presents the true story of a victim of clergy abuse. It should help sensitize leaders to the human cost of sexual abuse in ministry settings.
  
  
• Video #3. "Sexual Abuse in Faith Communities-An Expert Roundtable." This presentation features five experts who deal with different aspects of sexual abuse in faith communities, ranging from a psychologist who helped create his church's child protection program to an insurance claims manager who understands the legal impact of sexual abuse allegations. By sitting in on this group's discussion, viewers gain insight into the issues surrounding child sexual abuse in ministries today.
  
  
• Video #4. "Testimony of a Sex Offender." Viewers will hear from a convicted sex offender. As you'll learn through his story, there's no way to identify who is or isn't a sex offender based solely on outward appearances and impressions.
  
  
• Video #5. "Screening & Selection: Your First Line of Defense (with Richard Hammar)." Richard Hammar, noted church attorney and CPA, and one of the creators of Reducing the Risk, presents a powerful teaching session on the importance of proper screening and selection of staff and volunteers. This segment provides a five-step plan for reducing liability.
  
  
• Video #6. "Screening & Selection: The Candidate (a short film)." This segment creatively teaches leaders how to interview a candidate, conduct a background check, and check references. Participants will see and hear what the screening and selection process should look like.
  
  
• Video #7. "Legal Requirements: The Church's Responsibility to Protect Kids (with Richard Hammar)." Viewers receive more training by the most trusted name in church law-Richard Hammar. In this segment, he explains legal requirements for protecting children in your ministry, plus practical tips on how your ministry can meet the "reasonable standard of care."
  
  
• Video #8. "Supervising Scenarios: What Would You Do?" This fast-paced, interactive segment teaches principles of good supervision. It helps children and youth volunteers think through common scenarios of supervision.
  
  
• Video #9. "Responding to an Allegation." What would your ministry do if it were faced with an allegation of child sexual abuse? This video depicts the story of how one church handled this situation. Experts add insights to this first-person story.
  
  
• Video #10. "Taking the Next Steps." Spokesperson David Staal wraps up the DVD and offers action steps your ministry can take to implement or strengthen your child protection program.

Trainee Workbook: The Trainee Workbook provides everything your staff and volunteers need to know if they interact with kids. The Trainee Workbook is designed as a companion tool to help you follow along with, and gain a broader understanding of, the material presented in the video training segments. Everyone who completes the Reducing the Risk training can complete the Test at the back of the Trainee Workbook. You can retain this test to verify each ministry leader and worker's completion of this training. You may want to have all individuals who work with minors repeat this training on a periodic basis.

Screening Forms & Records File for Volunteers: This important tool ensures that key aspects of the screening process are performed and well documented. Inside you'll find all of the resources you need for screening each volunteer who will be working with the children and youth in your ministry, including: a Volunteer Service Application, interview forms with recommended questions, reference check forms, and an area to annually review and update Volunteer Service Applications. The entire booklet is designed to be used as your filing system for all screening information about the individual trainee, helping you keep all critical documentation in a single location.

Online Support at ReducingTheRisk.com: This coordinating website offers additional support for implementing the Reducing the Risk materials. You'll find all of the video segments online, in addition to discussion boards and a complete resource library. Using the website allows you the ability to train your employees or staff if you don't own the Training DVD, or to train any people that might have missed your scheduled training day.

Online Seminars

A vital part of the support program includes online seminars with interactive exercises that provide immediate feedback. Seminars are available on the following topics:

Understanding the Problem of Child Sexual Abuse and the Church. Child sexual abuse can happen in any church regardless of size, location, or affiliation. In this four-lesson seminar, we examine the nature and impact of child abuse, the profile of molesters, why churches are vulnerable, and the legal theories used to prove liability.

Selecting and Screening Church Staff Members to Work with Children. To ward off potential molesters, and to ensure adequate legal safeguards that rise to the level of reasonable care, every church should implement an effective screening program. This five-lesson seminar starts by reviewing the profiles of child molesters, and then examines the screening process for clergy and paid employees, the use of criminal records checks and other background checks, and concludes with developing an effective screening program for volunteer workers.

Principles of Supervising Youth and Children. This seminar begins by examining the profile of child sexual offenders. It then focuses on the problem of negligent supervision, and explains how key principles can be used to establish a basis for reasonable care. Attention is given to general versus specific supervision, and assessing levels of risk using the concepts of isolation, accountability, power, and activities. The seminar establishes five general principles of supervising children and youth to reduce the risk of child sexual molestation. At the conclusion of lesson 7 is a safety checklist that reviews the material for the entire seminar.

Understanding Risk and Ministry. This five-lesson seminar provides a foundation for understanding the relationship between ministry and risk management. The purpose of risk management in churches is not to eliminate risk, but to differentiate good risks from bad ones, and then through a process of caring and leadership to reduce or control bad risks. Implementing a risk management program in a church, though, can be difficult due to common theological and organizational barriers. This seminar examines the nature of those barriers, and explains how to differentiate risks, and ground risk management as part of the church's mission.

Motivating Church Leaders to Develop a Risk Management Program. This two-lesson seminar examines the best way to motivate church leaders to establish a church safety program. Often, motivation begins only after a problem occurs. Using a value-based strategy, this seminar proposes making a direct connection between what it means to be the people of God and the safety concerns that confront the congregation. The strategy arises out of fundamental beliefs of the community of faith, and safety concerns become grounded theologically in what it means to love God and neighbor. The catalyst for such a strategy is a dialogue on what it means to be the people of God.

Online Library

The Online Resource Center includes a comprehensive reference library of legal cases and developments that affect churches. You'll have access to hundreds of articles. The library is continuously updated with new material, and we monitor all key legal developments that impact churches and church leaders.

State Reporting Requirements

You'll have access to an annual update of child abuse reporting requirements for all 50 states. Information is provided on the legal definition of abuse, the actual reporting requirements, where reports are made, and any special legal provisions that apply to clergy.

Discussion Board

The web site includes a discussion board to ask questions, solve problems, and obtain additional information. You'll be able to interact with other church leaders from across the United States.