The Church’s Safety of Children and Vulnerable Adults Policy requires volunteers who have regular, direct contact with any “protected person” at on- or off-site ministries sponsored by the Church to complete the Safe Gatherings certification process. Protected people include children under the age of 18 and vulnerable adults who may be unable to care for or protect themselves from significant harm or exploitation due to mental or other disability, age, or illness.

Covered volunteers include Church governance committee members, KiDSCOR, rezlife, Partner School, Matthew’s Ministry, Silver Link, and Care Ministry volunteers, and mission and disaster relief trip participants. The Church or the Great Plains Annual Conference may add additional categories of volunteers as appropriate.

Safe Gatherings is a program developed by the Great Plains Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church to screen and train staff and volunteers. Safe Gatherings requires an online application, electronic reference checks, four levels of background checks (including county of residence), online abuse prevention and boundary awareness training, and regular re-certification. The Church pays for the cost of all background checks and Safe Gatherings certification.

Safe Gatherings requires each applicant to submit the name of one clergy reference that the applicant has known for at least two years. Questions regarding this requirement may be directed to Human Resources at Mary.Murray@cor.org.

Due to the time required to complete the comprehensive certification process, the Church’s volunteer application also includes authorization for an additional background check through Protect My Ministry.

Church of the Resurrection requires adult volunteers to have six continuous months of regular online or in-person worship or service to the Church prior to applying for Safe Gatherings certification. For newer volunteer applicants, the Program/Team Director can facilitate a meeting with the Location Pastor to discuss service opportunities.

Until Safe Gatherings certification is confirmed, the Church requires every volunteer in direct contact with a protected person to be visually supervised by another certified individual. Volunteers under the age of 18 must always be visually supervised when serving protected people. Please see the Church’s Safety of Children and Vulnerable Adults Policy for definitions and additional information.

Next Steps

After completing an application on the Volunteer Hub, visit the Safe Gatherings website to start your certification process.