Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Safe, Secure, and Ready

Last January, Kingdom Kids leaders had a Child Abuse and Emergency Preparedness Training. We trained on our policies and procedures in cases of child abuse and emergencies (fire, earthquake, and active shooter).

We have an annual Child Abuse Training that is based on the California Mandated Reporter General Training and Clergy Training. You can access the training below:

General Training, Click here
Clergy Training, Click here

Not all of our Kingdom Kids leaders are mandated reporters, according to California law, but in accordance to our church policy and in an effort to keep all of our children safe, we do not ignore signs and suspicions of child abuse.

Our fire and earthquake procedures are similar to public schools' fire and earthquake procedures because most of our children are already familiar with those procedures. You probably know them, too! Duck and cover for earthquakes. Swift and organized evacuation for fires.

Our meeting place for all emergencies is behind the lion statue next to the parking lot unless that area is deemed unsafe or we are relocated by first responders (police, firefighters, EMTs) or our church pastors and leaders (Ms. Angela or the security team).

Nowadays, schools also have active shooter drills. We used the FBI's "Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Houses of Worship" and the video below to train for an Active Shooter situation.

Access the FBI Guide here

An Active Shooter situation is when one or more people are actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area. Churches are not immune to active shooter situations, and we want to do what we can to be prepared for such an emergency.

Along with the FBI Guide, we used the following video in our training.



If an Active Shooter situation arises during Sunday services, we want to inform you that our Kingdom Kids policy is to HIDE (as shown on the video) if our children are in Sunday School. During Sunday School, we are confined to one room with only one way in and out. This is to our advantage. We have trained to barricade that door (as well as all doors), and have procedures on communication and evacuation.

If an Active Shooter situation arises during a ministry event where children are spread out (like during Family VBS), we have trained to respond with any of the three responses shown on the video: RUN, HIDE, or FIGHT. Giving more priority to Run and Hide.

Will you help in our efforts to keep our children safe? Follow these steps!

1. Register your child to Kingdom Kids. 
We keep a record of our families. If you are already registered, thank you! If you haven't registered, please see Ms. Angela or Ms. Lala. Registering your child or children will help us keep track of who's in our care. Visitors do not need to register.

2. Check your child in and out of Sunday School. 
Please be sure to check-in your child or children in Sunday School. In an emergency, we will use these clipboards to make sure we know which children are in our care. If your child is not signed-in, it will be hard to sort out the confusion during emergencies.

3. Watch the Active Shooter video above.
Since we are a Family Ministry, our parents and guardians are invited to participate in our ministry events. In case of an Active Shooter situation, it would help save lives the most if parents and guardians are also aware on how to RUN, HIDE, or FIGHT. We can work together in keeping each other safe!

Moving forward, we are working on getting Infant and Child First Aid and CPR certifications for our leaders. If you have any questions regarding our policies and procedures, please don't hesitate to ask. We love your family and want to keep your children safe!


No comments:

Post a Comment