Ensuring Effective Safety Policies for Non-Profits

Organizational Structure & Policies Organizational Structure and Policies Community centers can be the heartbeat of a neighborhood -- a vibrant, energetic space where people are guaranteed a warm welcome, find needed support, and explore options for improving their lives. Yet many community centers are located in areas of few economic supports and substantive need. This means that during the nighttime hours the community center may be a pinpoint light in a hazardous or bleak milieu. Staff and volunteers give generously and happily of their time at Brightwood Community Center.

Safety for Brightwood staff, neighborhood members, and program participants is uppermost on the minds of the Executive Director, the Assistant Director, and the Board of Directors. Accordingly, a recommendation has been forwarded to establish a policy requiring staff and others who are engaged in program activities during the evening hours to leave the community center in groups, never going solo into the parking area or down the street. To that end, this brief introduction to the Brightwood Community Center and its policymaking decisions provides an interview with C.L.

Day and Izera Day, and mini-policy analysis regarding the safety policy. II. Description of Agency a. Brightwood Community Center is a faith-based non-profit organization located in the Brightwood neighborhood of Indianapolis, Indiana. The agency mission is "To love God and our neighbor without bounds through justice, love and reconciliation" (Mark 12:30-31). The community center has been providing programs and services in the community for nearly 45 years.

Examples of programs and services offered at Brightwood include Survival Skills for Women, the SPARK Summer Program, and the SPARK After-School Program, which operates from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M. A core components of the Brightwood Community Center offerings include the food and clothing services. Brightwood refers to the food and clothing pantries as The Sharing Space. Each month, over 200 families receive food or clothing items from the Brightwood ministry. A new partnership is being established with Gleaners, and Brightwood will soon be a Client Choice ministry.

Brightwood's community partnerships include: Girls, Inc.; Wings of Elegance; National Council on Educating Black Children; the Martindale-Brightwood Alliance for Educational Success; Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI); and Indianapolis Public Schools. Funding is through solicited and unsolicited donations from individuals and enterprises and faith-based organizations, as well as through competitive grants offered at the regional and state levels. b. Decision making at Brightwood Community Center occurs in much the same way that it does within any non-profit organization governed by a board of directors.

The executive director and administrative staff regularly consider various issues that emerge during the course of doing business and review organizational needs. As problems are discussed and ideas flow, an agenda is eventually established that will be presented to the board of directors. This agenda will have been developed to the point where potential solutions to problems have been identified: the overarching goal, then, is twofold.

The decision-making processes conducted at Brightwood Community Center are common to non-profit organizations; often, as an agency grows, more people will be engaged in decision-making and the procedures will become more formalized. Staff will present some completely developed ideas for which they only desire approval and funding, and staff will present other ideas for which they truly desire input or guidance from the board of directors.

The proposed policy requiring that staff walk out of the building as a group at the end of the day or when night has fallen. III. Policy Overview a. External -- Indianapolis, Indiana, has a curfew for children and youth with different hours designated during the week and over the weekend. Under the current city code, youth ages 14 years and under have a curfew of 11 p.m. On Friday and Saturdays. For ages 15-17 years, that curfew is 1 a.m.

Under Indiana state law, for any child or youth under age 15 years, curfew is between 11 p.m. -- 5 a.m. any day of the week. And for ages 15-17 years, the curfew is after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 1 a.m. On the weekends. Some exceptions to the curfew law exist, such as when a minor is working, is married, is participating in a religious activity, or is with a guardian. Concerned community members and parents lobbied the mayor to change the 1:00 A.M.

weekend curfew, making it the same as the weeknight curfew of 11:00 A.M. Moreover, the Ten Point Coalition, supports a stricter curfew. This Ten Point Coalition is a community group that walks the Indianapolis streets each night encouraging youth to go home and stay out of trouble. Their membership receives training to help them be successful in their endeavors; several weeks ago, a training was held with volunteers to demonstrate how to convince teen-agers to go home when they are found outdoors past the curfew time.

Since many of the program participants of Brightwood Community Center are children or youth, the curfew has direct application for them. Programs for youth cannot end after the curfew as many participating youth will have escorts or chauffeuring adult family member to take them directly home. b.

Internal -- A Brightwood Community Center policy that directly and substantially impacts the agency and its clients is the requirement that all Brightwood staff and volunteers leave the building and the premises as a group when program activities do not end until it is night or it is dark. The Brightwood Neighborhood is not considered sufficiently safe for an individual to be alone in the parking area, on the grounds, or in the nearby street.

Therefore, the Board of Directors has approved this policy to better assure the safety of staff and program participants. IV. Mini Policy Analysis The internal policy that addresses the need for Brightwood Community Center staff to leave work at night in a group is entirely consistent with the agency's mission and goals. The faith-based non-profit engages in modeling desirable lifestyle choices in its day-to-day work in the community.

One of the messages that leaving work as a group communicates to youth in the community is that responsible behavior often requires adjustments to habits and preferences in order to increase the probability that adaptive behaviors are fostered. By practicing safe behaviors such as the one addressed in the policy, the staff of Brightwood Community Center can be confident that they are not presenting any temptation to individuals who might choose to rob or harass them should the be in a vulnerable situation.

The policy doesn't really establish winners and losers, nor does it cost anything to enact. Basically, the consequences of the policy are that the probability of safety for staff is enhanced. Diversity in human behavior, cultural values, and socio-economic variables are reflected in the safety policy; and the policy speaks to the human right of safety in the community. The overall strengths of the policy are that it is simple and easy to implement,.