Protection Ministry

Serving children and youth is one of our core ministries. Since we are committed to their safety, we've implemented Protection Policies.  These policies include a screening process for all staff and for certain volunteers. In addition to protecting vulnerable people, this process also protects volunteers and our ministry as a whole. Thank you for partnering with us in protecting people and ministry.

Volunteers who work in ministries that serve vulnerable people (children, youth or vulnerable adults) must complete the 6-step screening process below before they serve. Since several steps must be repeated over time, and the entire process is repeated every 10 years, a volunteer’s screening status is reviewed annually.

After initial completion, and after each annual review, a Notice of Screening Status is created and given to the volunteer and the ministry leader. The ministry leader is required to have this notice in hand before the volunteer may begin serving.

Steps of the Screening Process:

  1. Confidential Protection Application with references. CLICK HERE to print application.

  2. Interview. The interview must be in person and usually takes 10-15 minutes. To schedule your interview:

  3. One or more Protection Training Classes must be taken. Details below.

  4. Reference checks. We send volunteer applicants an email that you will forward to your references. The references send their responses back to us.

  5. A criminal background check.  We will order an online background check for those 18 and older.  Background checks will be repeated every 3 years for active volunteers.

  6. The six-month rule: Generally, you must be a member or documented participant at St. Peter for six months before serving in a ministry to vulnerable people.

Protection Training Class Details

Staff: All staff are mandated reporters are must take the training class offered by the Illinois Dept of Child and Family Services (DCFS). Active staff must repeat this class every 3 years. CLICK HERE to go to the DCFS training. After completion, you will need to forward your Certificate of Completion to Candy Fromm at cfromm@FullLifeinChrist.org.

Volunteers Serving Children and Youth: You have one required training and one optional training

1.      Required training: Illinois law requires all childcare volunteers to take an online training class through the Illinois Dept of Child and Family Services (DCFS) before they serve and to repeat the training every 3 years. For most people, the training takes about 30 min.

    • CLICK HERE to go to the DCFS training.

    • You will need to create an account with DCFS. When asked about employment, you can leave it blank or enter ‘volunteer’ in ‘other.’

    • After completion, download the Certificate of Completion and forward it to Isabel Peterson at ipeterson@FullLifeinChrist.org. (You can skip over the CANT 22 form.)

    • For volunteers under age 18, we suggest a parent view this training with the youth, or preview it in advance, due to its descriptions of types of sexual abuse. We also suggest youth volunteers discuss their mandated reporter responsibilities with their ministry leader before or after taking this training.

2.      An optional training is available. CLICK HERE to go to this training. We created this 14-minute training to give you supplemental information . . .

Volunteers Serving Vulnerable Adults: Those who serve frail elderly or people with developmental disabilities are required to view St. Peter’s training. CLICK HERE to go to this training. After viewing the video, you must complete and submit the Training Class Questionnaire at the top of the page.  This training must be repeated every 10 years.

Volunteers serving both children/youth and vulnerable adults must take both the DCFS training and the vulnerable adult training linked above.