Summer – and excited children heading off to summer camps for swimming, hiking, and boating – may be months away, but the hiring of camp staff and camp volunteers begins long before the temperatures start getting warmer. And while summer camp should be a time for fun, freedom, and frolicking, there are those criminals who would use this opportunity to prey upon the most innocent of victims in the most pleasant of surroundings.
According to the American Camp Association (ACA), more than 11 million children and adults attend approximately 12,000 camps throughout the United States every year. These camps use almost two million individuals as staff or volunteers to serve children, youth, and vulnerable adults – all potential victims of criminal activities. A recent ACA pilot program in which selected youth serving organizations had access to timely and inexpensive background checks on potential volunteers revealed some alarming criminal data.
Of the nearly 40,000 criminal background checks conducted on volunteers, 6.1% of all applicants were found to have criminal records that rendered them unfit to work with children. These criminal records included convictions of criminal sexual conduct with a child, aggravated criminal assault, rape, homicide, and other serious felonies. In addition, 40% of these individuals had a criminal record from other states – meaning that only a nationwide check would have uncovered that fact – and 26% of them showed a different name on their criminal record than the one they used to apply.
Protecting members from the unthinkable – and the criminals who commit those crimes – is the top priority of any organization, including non-profit and volunteer groups. Leading consumer background check provider MyBackgroundCheck.com – a member of the Pre-employ.com Family of Companies – is sponsoring a FREE webinar titled “Preventing the Unthinkable: An Integrated Approach to Protecting Campers and Staff” on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 from 1:00 PM to 1:40 PM PST to help camp owners keep their camps safe and protect their campers and volunteer staff from criminals. Campground decision makers and camp volunteers interested in joining the webinar may sign up at http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/Business/Volunteer/Camp/.
Participants in this webinar will learn how to increase camper and camp volunteer staff safety by preventing exposure to sexual predators and other criminals, tracking camp job and volunteer applicants to see if they have ever been denied placement at camps before, and implementing a minimal-cost, comprehensive screening solution for camps on a local, regional, and national level.
How can criminals be prevented from being volunteers at camps? The answer is by using Mybackgroundcheck.com’s comprehensive Volunteer Tracking System (VTS), a unique volunteer screening program that tracks volunteer applicants within your organization for effective risk management at the local, regional, and national levels. VTS significantly reduces volunteer screening costs and protects volunteers, the community, and your organization.
To learn more about MyBackgroundCheck.com’s VTS, please visit www.volunteertracking.com or contact a VTS representative at 1-800-503-2364. To learn how to protect your camp or volunteer organization from criminals, or to sign up for the FREE webinar – “Preventing the Unthinkable: An Integrated Approach to Protecting Campers and Staff” – please visit http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/Business/Volunteer/Camp/.
*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!
Pastor Pleads Guilty to Stealing 200K from Church…
Churches and all other nonprofit organizations need to take a closer look at the risks of hiring pastors, volunteers or anyone without conducting background checks. In a recent case reported by Cleveland’s Newsnet5, a pastor took money from a fund for the poor, stole another church member’s identity, and took out loans against the church’s assets. This man, Donald Robinson, had already served time in a federal prison for real estate fraud in another state. A simple background check would have prevented him from victimizing this church and its members.
There are countless historical and recent incidents of pastors, priests, and other religious leaders taking advantage of their positions and financial contributions from members. Affordable background checks are now readily available to help stop these individuals from infiltrating your organizations.
All nonprofit organizations seek to gain from background checks for many reasons other than embezzlement and identity theft. Child sex abuse is a growing problem for religious organizations as well as other areas of society. The Baptist Press issued a press release last month on the initiative of the International Mission Board (IMB) to increase the use of background checks, mainly to protect children from sex abuse.
If your organization is concerned about affording background checks, the costs are far less than that of a catastrophic incident. MyBackgroundCheck.com offers a Volunteer Tracking System for Nonprofit organizations that encompasses an overall risk management program at minimal costs. This program is recommended by the National Council of Nonprofit Associations.
Please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com/Business/Volunteer/. for more information and resources.
*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!
As identity theft becomes an escalating risk for Americans, we find that the Oakland Mayor’s office failed to conduct a background check on an intern who turned out to be a known embezzler (SF Gate report here). Patricia Williams allegedly stole the bank account information of 100 donors to their Holiday Toy Drive, stole the identity of a co-worker, and charged over $10,000 on stolen account information.
In a world where private information is so easily obtained and used for fraud, every business, especially government offices, should be conducting background checks. If government offices and businesses are skimping on background checks because of the cost, imagine what this incident cost the Mayor’s office. I wouldn't be surprised if the phones have been ringing off the hook and the attorneys have already moved in for a negligent hiring kill.
Fortunately, there are solutions for those who are victims of identity theft. Because identity theft is the number one crime today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is working diligently on solutions to help consumers. By ordering your own credit and criminal background checks you can monitor discrepancies and control who sees your information.
In addition to monitoring your own background checks, the Identity Theft Red Flag Rules issued by the FTC will be going into effect in November. Financial institutions and other users of consumer reports will now have to closely monitor your accounts for identity theft and identity fraud and respond appropriately to prevent and mitigate damages.
Go to www.MyBackgroundCheck.com to learn more about how you can take control of your personal information.
*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!
Casselberry police arrested a volunteer accused of stealing money from a Little League team.
Detectives said Patricia Penn stole $8,000. She ran concessions for the team and admitted to stealing the funds and maxing out the league's credit card at Sam's Club.
Penn said she used the money to buy fuel for her cars.
"It put us in a bind. We don't even have enough money to stock concessions yet this year, so we've had to postpone the season, that type of thing. It was a lot of hurt, a lot of shock, and a lot of dismay," Casselberry Little League President Darrin Sink said.
Phone calls to Penn were unsuccessful. She resigned from the Little League team.
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For more information on how you can prevent criminals from working in your nonprofit association, please visit www.volunteertracking.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!