Youth Protection Tips and Resources You Need to Know

The Youth Protection team is pleased to be joining Scouting Wire. With the broad reach of BSA’s Scouting Wire, and the frequency of its communications, it will be the appropriate way to release information covering youth protection activities to a wide population. So look forward to the release of various timely articles on youth protection actions, new publications, and information on upcoming events. We are excited about the new teaming with Scouting Wire, and trust you will be as well.

What’s New in Youth Protection?

What a great question to address! Easiest answer is that there are lots of new things being addressed and rolled out from the Youth Protection team. It’s not just Youth Protection Training, but it is all the other pieces of knowledge and information that volunteers, professionals, parents, and other interested parties want to know about. While updates to the various YP training tools are in process, the following summarizes some of the new items that have been addressed, developed, and rolled out for all to use:

Scouting’s Barriers to Abuse (revised – March 2016)

• Latest revision of Barriers were sent via email in the Scout Executive Council Packet on April 11, 2016.
• The new listing of Barriers are available online at BSA’s Youth Protection website: http://www.scouting.org/Training/YouthProtection.aspx.

New Youth Protection/Membership Incident Information Form

• Forms can be accessed at BSA’s Scouting Safely, Incident Reporting website: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/incident_report.aspx.
• Developed in 2015 and includes a supporting document entitled “Youth Protection Position Statement” that provides guidance on documenting and reporting potential violations of criminal or civil abuse statutes, violations of BSA policies, and/or other behavior-related incidents.

Bullying Prevention Guide

• A new Bullying Prevention Guide was included in the Appendix of the Troop Leader Guidebook.
• The Guide is also available online in the “Bullying Awareness” section of BSA’s Youth Protection website: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/training/pdf/BullyingPreventionGuide.pdf

Revised Parent Guides

• As part of the updates with the Youth Protection Training portfolio (YPT-2), new Youth Protection Parent Guides for Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and STEM Scouts were developed and can now be found in the front of each of the latest edition of these program handbooks.
• The Parent Guides are also available online: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Scouting/Training/YouthProtection/Parents%20Guides.aspx.
• Parents and leaders should review carefully; completion of the “Exercises on Personal Safety Awareness” are required for rank advancement.
• Further updates for other program guides will be addressed in the future.

Usage of Social Media

• Like the rest of Scouting’s programs and information sharing activities, the YP team has started to use the various social media tools that BSA has available.
• Articles over the past months have addressed bullying, respect for others, and Youth Protection month activities. All articles can be accessed at https://scoutingwire.org/.
• Similarly, through the great support of Bryan Wendell and the entire staff of Boys Life and Scouting magazines, articles addressing youth protection topics have been published. The “Bryan on Scouting” blog has addressed key issues in a timely manner, to the satisfaction of all the bloggers. All blog posts can be accessed at http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/.

Did You Miss the Internet Safety Month Webinar with NetSmartz?

As part of National Internet Safety Month in June, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Boy Scouts of America provided an informational session on internet safety, the Cyber Chip program, and how you can make your Scouts safer online. During the session, participants learned about the latest trends and safety issues affecting Scouts and discussed solutions to help keep them safer while at home, school, and out and about.

If you missed the webinar session, you can view the recording online and learn all that was included. To watch this important webinar conducted by NCMEC’s Executive Director for Outreach, Ju’Riese Colon, please go to: https://ncmec.adobeconnect.com/p70shw1crjn/.