CYSNA Protection Policy:
Protecting Our Most Vulnerable Population

Volunteers at Houston’s First are truly Difference Makers as they give their lives to serve our church family. For years, our church has taken measures through a child protection policy to ensure that these volunteers create environments of safety and security to protect children, youth, and special needs adults (CYSNA). Houston’s First recently strengthened that policy even further as we continue the commitment to create a culture that cares and provides safe spaces for our most vulnerable population.

The revised policy is called the CYSNA Protection Policy and focuses heavily on the culture of interacting with our CYSNA community ensuring that there is no room for assault, abuse, or any misconduct to be carried out. This policy will be enforced at any program or event at Houston’s First where children, students, or special needs adults are invited to attend.

The leadership team and other staff members wanted to simplify the screening process for our ministry leaders as they recruit volunteers who understand our mission of serving the CYSNA community and providing a culture of safety and care. The goal with the revised policy is to make a difference in our community as the church adheres to God's calling of protecting the most vulnerable.

All Houston’s First staff and volunteers will be accountable to the policy through a ten-step screening process and required training.

Statistics demonstrate that a simple background check would not be the sole layer of protection for our CYSNA community as 90% of perpetrators are never caught or processed through our judicial system. This means background checks only cover the 10% who have already been caught. Therefore, the church created additional layers of protection, such as the ten-step screening process for all our CYSNA volunteers. This method allows us to carefully process volunteers that have the right intention in serving with our CYSNA community.

Another measure that the church wanted to accomplish with the revised policy was to ensure that all staff members and volunteers have awareness and training by incorporating quarterly and yearly training. This training includes topics such as sexual abuse awareness, child sexual abuse prevention, skillful screening, and much more. The training is provided by experts from our partners at Ministry Safe and Darkness to Light.

Another major change is a new CYSNA dashboard in Rock, our online church management system, which easily shows where a staff or volunteer is in the approval process.

“In the previous policy, we relied a lot on self-policing,” says Bischoff. “This audit process in the revised policy allows our CYSNA Protection Policy Office to work with the screeners and ministry leaders – not to ‘catch’ someone doing wrong, but to continue to help everyone get better at what they do.”

New and existing staff and volunteers are required to go through the approval process in this revised policy – including Pastor Gregg!

CYSNA Protection Policy

Anyone can view the CYSNA Protection Policy document by downloading or viewing the PDF here. This 12-page document is used in training sessions with staff and volunteers, and serves as a resource for everyone. The content includes:

• The “Why” for the CYSNA Protection Plan
• Code of Conduct for Appropriate Interaction with Kids
• Process for Screening Prospective Volunteers
• Training and Other Requirements
• Response to Indicators of Abuse
• CYSNA Protection Policy Office Overview
• Resources

CYSNA Protection Policy Office

The CYSNA Protection Policy Office is comprised of Central Support personnel assigned by the Director of Operations to oversee, audit, and train Houston’s First staff and volunteers in the CYSNA Protection Policy.

Please contact our CYSNA Department:

Jenny Sheets, CYSNA Director
Jenny.Sheets@HoustonsFirst.org
713.335.6453