ACA Camps Call to Action - Background Checks
Recently I received an email from Susan Yoder, Staff Liaison of ACA's Public Policy Committee (see link below). American Camp Association is advocating changes in the Child Protection Improvements Act of 2008. This congressional bill would allow camps access to fingerprint-based FBI criminal record checks of staff and volunteers if enacted. Please read the email below and take the time to act. As we see the incidence rate of abuse growing each year, we want to do everything we can to create the safe environments for children at camps; this is a great way to get involved in the public policy decisions which give us more resources to keep kids safe.
Last year alone, The Redwoods Group investigated over 450 allegations of abuse at YMCAs, JCOs and their camps. Nationwide statistics tell us that each year there are approximately 80,000 reported cases of child sexual abuse, and what we know from years of investigations and studying the data is that nearly 95% of all allegations are true. How does this happen? First, predators are excellent interviewers...when was the last time you had a prospective employee respond to you, "I want to work at camp because I want to sexually abuse kids." Second, only 44% of background checks are fully accurate. This legislation will help to close that gap. Get involved today so that you can better protect your campers tomorrow. http://www.acacamps.org/publicpolicy/cbcresources.php
Make it fun, make it meaningful, keep 'em safe!
Howard
For more information and resources on abuse prevention, visit our website www.redwoodsgroup.com
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We need your help to reach our goals of getting camps access to timely, affordable, finger-print based criminal background checks!
The Child Protection Improvements Act of 2008 is a bill in both the Senate (S 2756) and the House of Representatives (HR 5606). Implementation of the bill would mean that camps would have access to fingerprint-based FBI criminal records checks of their staff and volunteers. This bill is important to the camp community because currently forty-one states do not allow you access to the FBI—and for those that do, it is prohibitively expensive and often takes weeks or months to get the results.
We are asking everyone to PHONE their legislators to ask them to sign on as co-sponsors of the bill. The more co-sponsors that are secured, the better the chances that the bills will be passed into law.
We’ve set up a very easy process and support information for you to make your calls. Simply go online for all the information.
http://www.acacamps.org/publicpolicy/cbcresources.php
Please act today as the Judiciary Committee in the Senate is meeting this week, and we need as many co-sponsors as possible.
If you have any questions about this call to action, please contact me at the ACA National Office.
Sincerely,
Susan Yoder
Susan E. Yoder, IOM
Staff Liaison, ACA Public Policy Committee
800-428-2267
syoder@ACAcamps.org
www.ACAcamps.org
www.CampParents.org
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