Assessing Child Safety Standards in Churches

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Back in December, a reporter reached out to us about ECAP and asked for our assessment. It took about 2 minutes to find dozens of red flags about this organization. christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/april/ecap-church-accreditation-child-safety-standards.html

@ACNAtoo gets questions like this all the time. "Do you recommend this?" "What is a good training resource?" "How can we protect our children?" These are good questions. Unfortunately, the answers aren't very popular. Churches want to check a box. Churches want a fast solution.

Churches want something like this: "Accreditation by ECAP will objectively verify that a ministry organization meets the standards set by ECAP for child abuse prevention and response." ecap.net/accreditation/

Here's the problem: child abuse is a systemic issue. Checklists can be helpful, but if you want to actually stop abuse in the church, you need to radically change the way that you do church. On every level. Obviously people don't want to hear that. We like to be comfortable.

Churches don't want to listen to survivors' painfully-gained expertise. They don't want to groan with the survivors and walk through their trauma with them. They want nice lawyers and consultants to deliver tidy solutions.

That's where organizations like ECAP come in. Basically, you're paying for liability insurance so that if a kid gets hurt you can say that it wasn't your fault.

Other red flags (from Board Member @telioslaw): "NDAs can help ensure that the reputation of the organization will not be harmed by allegations circulating in the public or by expensive litigation arising from those allegations." ecap.net/gift-or-gag-considerations-for-ndas-in-misconduct-claims/

Counter-point to @TeliosLaw from @R_Denhollander: twitter.com/R_Denhollander/status/1264417399291420673?s=20

Another red flag: this affiliate program. Pay us money and we'll give you access to our members! ecap.net/affiliate/

And one more: ecap.net/standards/ As I've written before, chaperones are NOT a safegaurd: twitter.com/abbinye/status/1599864104398700544?s=20

If you want the satisfaction of checking a box, check the box that says NO THANK YOU. And then sit down with the survivors you know and humbly ask if they'd be willing to share their painful knowledge.