The current Coronavirus crisis has led to an upswell in volunteering, as people step forward to help each other weather this difficult period. However, while the vast majority of people will volunteer with altruistic intentions, some will have more negative desires. TDI have worked for 25 years to help members of the public and lay professionals manage the risk of sexual harm and take steps to prevent it. In this series of four short videos designed for volunteers and their managers, we use our experience to cover questions of recruitment, avoiding manipulation and spotting the signs of abuse to help you keep yourself and your clients safe.
The videos
Session 1: What has changed? Key issues for community groups
This is the first in a series of four videos aimed at local community groups, thinking through the issues of safe volunteering. This video thinks through the context of the current Coronavirus crisis, considering both the benefits and challenges it brings to keeping ourselves and our clients safe.
Session 2: Recruitment and deployment of volunteers
In this second session for local community groups around volunteering with safety, we consider how to start with safety through the careful recruitment of volunteers.
Session 3: Keeping ourselves and our clients safe
In this third session for local community groups around volunteering with safety, we look at the dangers of grooming and manipulation - how can those with bad intentions take advantage of us and our clients, and how can we avoid this?
Session 4: Keeping the vulnerable safe: being alert to the signs of abuse
In this fourth session for local community groups around volunteering with safety, we look at the signs of abuse which we might spot as volunteers and the actions we should take in response.
The exercises
To accompany these videos, TDI has prepared a number of exercises which will help you think through the issues in the training and build up resources around safe practice which your volunteer group can use.