By Lisa Marchitto
When NHL star Sheldon Kennedy announced that he had been sexually abused for nine years by his coach, parents across Canada worried about something like this happening to their child.
“We were fielding 30 to 50 (telephone) calls a day,” says Paddy Bowen, executive director of the Canadian Association of Volunteer Bureaux and Centres (CAVBC), “from concerned parents, the media, people in hockey associations. . .”
Little did parents know that the CAVBC was already on top of volunteer screening.
The National Education Campaign on Screening was launched in 1994 by the CAVBC in order to make the public and organizations aware of the need to screen potential volunteers.
With funding from the federal government, the CAVBC developed educational resources — a video, handbook and pamphlets — about screening volunteers and paid staff members who work with children and other vulnerable people, including those with mental and physical disabilities.
The CAVBC also held training workshops last fall with more than 4,000 agencies across the country to educate agencies about the need to check into the background of who they’re hiring.
Many organizations have tightened up their screening policies in the last year or two.
But Bowen says it’s hard to measure the success of the campaign because it’s impossible to know if the agencies who participated in the workshops are making screening a part of their mandate.
“The screening workshops are excellent and very well-organized, with good, solid information,” says Warren McMeekin, executive director of the First Canada Region of Scouts Canada.
The provincial government joined the CAVBC’s initiative a year later. In February 1995, they passed legislation that required all provincially funded organizations to have a police records check done on potential volunteers and staff who work one-on-one with vulnerable individuals such as children.
McMeekin says the first Canada region of Scouts Canada, which includes Ottawa-Carleton, has been doing police records checks since last year.
“You can never be too careful, I guess,” he says. “You do everything you possibly can to make sure your youth members are well-protected and you get the best possible volunteers.”
“Police records checks are only a part of the screening process,” warns Nathalie Charette, manager of education and promotion for the Volunteer Centre of Ottawa-Carleton.
Other steps in the screening process include the candidate filling out application forms and participating in one or more interviews. The organizations also do reference and medical checks.
Police records checks can be the most time-consuming part of the screening process.
If potential volunteers get a police records check done on themselves, it takes a day and costs $10 dollars.
A non-profit organization can have a police records check done for free but it can take as long as two months.
Authorities caution that the public shouldn’t be hesitant to volunteer their services just because many agencies have tightened up their screening policies.
“(Screening) doesn’t hinder your chances of getting the job,” says Charette. “We’re not eliminating candidates, we’re checking them.”
Funding from the federal government ended in May but the CAVBC will continue to educate the public and organizations by holding workshops this fall and into 1998.
The CAVBC has applied for two more years of federal funding to develop more educational resources for the campaign.
A decision on the funding will be made by the solicitor general later this month.