Severna Park United Methodist Church, following the direction and guidance of the United Methodist Church and the Baltimore-Washington Conference, has developed a comprehensive program to reduce the risk of abuse and sexual harassment to the children and youth in our care and to protect our staff and volunteers from false accusations. The program appropriately is called “Safe Sanctuaries”.

Under Safe Sanctuaries all church staff members, and those volunteers who work with our children and youth, are asked to undergo a background check and to submit three references. This screening process is intended to identify anyone who may pose a threat to our children and youth.  The background check includes a multi-state criminal records check, a 50 state sex offender search, and a Social Security Number trace. These checks are very similar to those required of anyone who teaches in the local school systems.

If you are a volunteer with children and youth and receive various Safe Sanctuaries forms to complete, please do so as soon as you can. Also, follow up with those you list as references to return the forms that will be sent to them for completion. This will help ensure Safe Sanctuaries screening is accomplished quickly thereby protecting all of our children and youth.

Click here