Free · Certificate included
Youth Program Risk Management
Build the policies and habits that keep your youth program safe and defensible.
What you’ll learn
- Identify common risks in youth programs across people, participants, program, and premises
- Build screening, training, supervision, and reporting policies that layer on each other
- Apply the CDC six-component framework and two-adult / no one-on-one rules
- Run an incident response that protects the child first and the organization second
- Document safeguards that protect kids and stand up to an insurer or a court
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Create a free account →Course outline
- 1
Why youth programs carry unique risk
Working with children is one of the most rewarding things your organization does — and one of the riskiest.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 2
The layered-defense model
No single control stops abuse. A determined offender can pass a background check, charm a reference, and look like your best volunteer. That’s why safe…
6 min Quiz - 3
Identify & screen: the front layers
The first two layers are about who you let near children.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 4
Train everyone: the layer that activates the rest
Policies that live in a binder protect no one.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 5
Supervise: ratios, two-adult & no one-on-one
Supervision is the layer that removes opportunity.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 6
Safe environments & monitoring
The fourth CDC component is the physical and digital environment — the "Premises" of the 4 P’s.
4 min Quiz Interactive - 7
Respond: when something goes wrong
Even the best program needs a response plan ready before it’s needed.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 8
Document, review & build the culture
The final piece ties the layers together: documentation, periodic review, and culture.
4 min Quiz Interactive
Sources & further reading
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-Serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures
- Nonprofit Risk Management Center — Key Principles in Youth Protection: Considerations and Action Steps
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — About Child Sexual Abuse (prevalence and offender data)
- Praesidium — Helping Organizations Prevent Abuse — the Praesidium Safety Equation
- Scouting America — Youth Protection: two-deep leadership and no one-on-one contact
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