Risk Assessment Worksheet

Background (Taken from "Screening Guidelines for Congregations", Diocese of Algoma 2002)

Risk assessment is the heart of volunteer screening. Immediate action can often be taken to lower the risk even before screening procedures are applied (for example, putting windows in Sunday School classroom doors). Congregations and people organizing deanery or diocesan level events are encouraged to err on the side of caution when assessing the risk levels inherent in various ministries and positions. When there is doubt or disagreement as to the degree of risk, the risk level should be assessed as high. The risk assessment grid found on page 3.2 of Screening in Faith is a helpful tool in determining whether a particular activity is low, medium, or high-risk.

An activity can automatically be assessed high-risk if any of the following circumstances apply:

Any ministry to children, teens, or vulnerable adults when the person has direct care of, or access to, the participants;

Access to the personal property or assets of vulnerable persons;

Regular access to church property or assets;

One-on-one interactions;

Being in the church building alone (high-risk for the volunteer/staff person);

Off-site or overnight activities with vulnerable persons.

A person can be considered "vulnerable" when they have difficulty protecting themselves for a number of reasons, including age, disability, or temporary personal crisis.

Volunteers and paid staff engaged in high-risk ministries are encouraged to read the "Guidelines for Working With Vulnerable Persons" document provided with the Parish Screening and Program Management Kit and become familiar with the definitions of sexual misconduct as described in Canon B-3.

Instructions

After you have listed the ministries in your congregation and developed first draft ministry descriptions for each, you are ready for this exercise. Now, identify potential risks of abuse, misconduct, and danger. This is a preliminary risk assessment, with a second look to be taken at each ministry once job descriptions are completed. You can choose to use or ignore the "ministry category" box. If you listed your ministries using the "SWEEPS" method (Stewardship, Worship, Education, Evangelism/Outreach, Pastoral Care, Social), you may want to keep those same categories. Or, you may have found that ministries clustered into other types of categories.

If your parish has a narrative budget, I would suggest using the same categories identified there. You may also have "categories of ministry" somehow expressed in your parish vision/mission statement or motto. Using any of these will promote consistency and understanding.

RISK LEVEL: H = High, M = Medium, L = Low