This Toolkit brings together material developed from Viva’s work partnering with 35 networks worldwide, including Understanding Gods Heart for Children (UGHFC), the Celebrating Children Course (Viva Equip People) and the Quality Improvement System (QIS-Viva Equip Projects). It also includes material from the Keeping Children Safe Coalition of which Viva is a member (www.keepingchildrensafe.org.uk/toolkit). Further original material has been developed specifically for this Toolkit.
The Toolkit looks at creating safe environments for children (safeguarding) and protecting them from harm, from a Christian perspective. It seeks to be especially helpful to churches, ministries and Christian organisations which are looking to become safe and positive places for children.
The Toolkit is structured around 7 chapters which can take your organisation or church through a process of understanding the reasons for keeping children safe, the potential risks to children’s safety, assessing where you are in keeping children safe, and putting in place policies and procedures which can ensure that we do all we can to protect children. The final chapter gives ideas of how organisations can also promote child protection more widely in communities and how networks can develop collaborative responses around keeping children safe.
Viva seeks to include children as much as possible and so each section includes a number of Child Participation exercises which are designed to help you to include children as you develop ways of keeping children safe.

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