With summer vacation almost here, some parents are busy making – or have already made – plans to send their children off to summer camps for days, weeks, even months. However, while summer camp should be a time for fun, freedom, and frolicking, volunteer screening helps keep it safe and secure.
Ensuring the safety and security of campers is a top priority for any summer camp. Since many popular organizations promoting summer camps are nonprofits – meaning that they must rely on the work of volunteers – a thorough and extensive volunteer screening program is necessary to protect the campers, fellow summer camp workers, and organizations.
According to the American Camp Association (ACA), more than 11 million children and adults attend approximately 12,000 camps throughout the United States, and these camps use almost two million individuals as staff or volunteers to serve children, youth, and those with special needs.
While the benefits of the summer camp experience are many – including the learning of responsibility, resourcefulness, and resilience – these lessons can only be taught in a safe and caring environment. To ensure that environment exists and is protected, many camps routinely perform volunteer screening of applicants to increase security and reduce risk and liability.
And while the chances of having Jason Voorhees from the “The Friday the 13th” horror movie series as a summer camp counselor are non-existent, it takes only one volunteer with a criminal past – and future criminal intentions – to turn a summer full of laughter into a memory full of sorrow.
To meet the specific requirements of non-profit organizations for volunteer screening, MyBackgroundCheck.com – a leading provider of volunteer screening for nonprofits such as the American Red Cross – has developed a unique and comprehensive Volunteer Tracking System (VTS). VTS tracks volunteer applicants within nonprofit organizations for effective risk management at the local, regional, and national levels, while significantly reducing volunteer screening costs and protecting volunteers, communities, and organizations.
VTS also allows a volunteer screening “donation” option in which the volunteer donates the cost required for the volunteer screening, allowing the money saved by the nonprofit organization to be used on the children instead. In return, the volunteer can use the screening reports for college entrance, rental applications, and job opportunities.
For more information about MyBackgroundCheck.com’s VTS, please visit www.volunteertracking.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or speak with a VTS representative at 1-800-503-2364.
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*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!
With the immense popularity of online social networking gathering spots such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, companies that feature background check services should follow suit and make their own websites more interactive, user-friendly, and "social" to attract online customers.
A monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for March 2009 by comScore, Inc. and Media Metrix service revealed that Twitter.com more than doubled its visitor base to over 9 million and ranked as the top-gaining web property for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook.com moved up one spot in the ranking to #9 this month with 61.2 million visitors.
Members of these fast-growing social networking sites should consider ordering "personal" background checks for themselves. Why? Because they will need background checks as jobseekers, students, tenants, volunteers, home help, contractors, dates, and online "friends." Even if they are just concerned individuals interested in preventing identity theft and keeping their personal information secure and accurate, an individual background check is a good idea.
With the number of individual background checks on the rise, MyBackgroundCheck.com – a leading provider of consumer-requested and applicant-supplied background checks worldwide – has re-designed its website to include some exciting new features, resources, and interactivity.
New Features:
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Access common features through the My Account dashboard.
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Invite others to view your investigative background check reports.
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Share your background check reports with users in your network.
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Access your recent activity panel quickly and easily.
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Share your public profile or view other public profiles.
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Search for other MyBackgroundCheck.com users.
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Send messages to others within your own network.
New Resources:
New Interactivity:
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Contact Preferences: Stay up to date with background check news, industry tips, and receive special offers for MyBackgroundCheck.com products and services.
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Public Profile: Your public profile is displayed when other MyBackgroundCheck.com users search our network.
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Feedback: Your feedback is of great value to MyBackgroundCheck.com. Our goal is to empower you to share ideas and to make suggestions for how we may improve your user experience. We will make every effort to accommodate your requests and serve your needs.
With a MyBackgroundCheck.com Account, members can order customized background checks, share the results with anyone, and control their information. For more information, please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.
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tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com
*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!
While the vast majority of schools currently run background checks on teachers, they aren’t the only people who work closely – in some cases, too closely – with students. The following two cases from the Southern California area will show why schools should have the same standards for criminal background checks on volunteers and contractors as they do for teachers.
In the first case, San Diego-area school officials were forced to review their policies for background checks on volunteers after they learned an un-registered 63-year-old sex offender had worked with students for several months as a volunteer music coach. The man was arrested recently on suspicion of failing to register as a sex offender and was taken into custody. Sex-crimes detectives were then notified about possible inappropriate conduct between the man and a student at the school where he worked once a week after regular classes ended.
A background check was never done on the volunteer, admitted a spokesman for the School District, since the district's policy leaves it up to school principals to order background checks on volunteers “when appropriate.” However, there are no clear guidelines to determine when a background check is appropriate. State education law requires schools to do background checks only on employees, not volunteers, unless the school makes a specific request.
This was not the first time the man had been accused of failing to register as a sex offender, as that was among the charges facing him in 1999 in connection with the molestation of two teenage boys. He pleaded guilty in June of that year to two counts of child molestation.
The second case concerned an outside contractor for a school in the San Gabriel area who put on an astronomy program at an elementary school. Although he had a criminal record that included a felony and a lewd conduct conviction, the contractor passed a background check conducted by a company that books sub-contractors to put on educational presentations at schools around the country. Background checks were done on all contractors by a background screening service and the contractor's name came back clear. However, this particular background screening service had been reported by consumers for delivering incomplete background checks.
The contractor was arrested a day after the assembly and was later tried on charges of inappropriately touching five girls during the presentation (he was later acquitted on three of the four charges, with the fourth ending in a deadlocked jury). At his trial, prosecutors said the accused man's criminal history included a 1996 arrest for lewd conduct while parked in front of a playground, a felony count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell that same year, and a two year prison sentence, according to court records.
Protecting children and teenagers from the unthinkable should be the top priority for schools, and their background check policies must extend beyond teachers to include volunteers and contractors. MyBackgroundCheck.com – a member of the Pre-employ.com Family of Companies – has performed background check services on volunteers and contractors for the American Red Cross as well as many other non-profit and volunteer organizations. To learn more about MyBackgroundCheck.com’s background check services for volunteers and contractors, please visit www.MyBackgroundCheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.
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*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!