Safe Church Advisor

The church should be a safe place, a shelter that provides love, safety and security to everyone. Unfortunately, this safety cannot be taken for granted, sexual and other kinds of abuse takes place within churches worldwide; sometimes this is obvious, sometimes it is more subtle. At ICF-Noord we take this issue seriously and believe in Christ’s Church there is no place for abuse in any form. As a result, we have put in place many measures to ensure we remain a safe church and this includes the appointment of a member of the church to act as our Safe Church Advisor.

What will your responsibilities be as Safe Church Advisor?

• Acting as a confidential first point of contact if someone in the congregation or leadership needs to discuss a safeguarding concern or has questions about the topic
• Escalate safeguarding concerns where needed and follow the appropriate steps
• Take part in training (approx. 4 half day sessions provided by https://meldpuntmisbruik.nl/) and annual follow-up workshops
• Ensuring VOGs are obtained from volunteers where needed
• Maintaining and updating our safe church policy and code of conducts
• Ensuring the congregation is kept up to date with information on our safe church procedures and is able to reach out with concerns
• Keeping safeguarding on the church leadership agenda and regularly discussing how we can continue to prevent abuse and ensure a safe church

As we are a multi-lingual church and this role may require escalating issues to Dutch social services you must be able to communicate in both Dutch and English.

This role is vital to our Church but is not one that you will be alone in, you will be supported by the church leadership team and we will also appoint two external confidential counsellors to act as additional contact points.

If you would like to know more about this role, please contact Harriet at harriet.robson92@gmail.com or Gill at: gillytyson@ymail.com