Assess the Level of Risk for Child Sexual Abuse by A Volunteer

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Use the matrix on page 33 to judge how much opportunity a volunteer in your organization would have during regular activities to commit child sexual abuse. This matrix includes situations common to many youth-serving organizations but may not identify situations unique to your local government.

Items listed in each row are examples of the range of risk that organizations should consider for that particular row (the rows are not arranged in any special order). The risk should be evaluated based on how frequently the organization's volunteer activities attain that level of risk. For example, there is a significant difference in risk exposure for a program centered around volunteer-led wilderness treks lasting several weeks than for programs that have an occasional weekend camp-out supervised by volunteers.

Risks of child sexual abuse may be lowered through the use of mitigation measures--risk management strategies. For instance, when local governments cannot structure their programs to preclude one-to-one contact between children and adults, they can lower, or mitigate, the risk of child sexual abuse by establishing frequent communication between the child and an individual assigned to monitor the relationship.

They may further mitigate this risk by delivering educational programs that help …