The Treasure Valley Family YMCA announced in September it received a "Praesidium accreditation" for child abuse prevention, but would no longer be allowing kids under 12 to access the Y without adult supervision.
Previously, the Y allowed kids as young as ten to enter without a guardian or program participation.
“Most of the areas in our buildings are already supervised,” explained VP and Chief Development Officer Meagan Ellis.
She said internal data show about 800 ten or eleven-year old children who use Treasure Valley YMCA facilities and programs. The vast majority already come in with supervision or are enrolled in a Y program and won’t be affected by the new policy, which began on Oct. 1.
The change comes as part of a multi-year accreditation process with national sexual abuse prevention consultant Praesidium, which works to help organizations learn how to better protect kids using a focus on eight areas they call their "safety equation."
The Treasure Valley Family YMCA is the 43rd Y to earn the accreditation, and first in Idaho.
“We've been working with them for the past several years in an assessment where we go through every aspect of our organization to see where our risk points are” explained Treasure Valley Family YMCA President and CEO David Duro. “Then we have action plans that we follow to address those risk points. Accreditation is a step up from that.”
Consultants toured facilities looking for areas hidden from passing view or other potentially problematic designs. Requiring adult supervision for anyone under 12 falls under Praesidium’s best practices for monitoring and supervision.
“But there's also policies on training and screening,” said Duro. “And how you respond, how you get consumers to participate and be aware of what good practices are around safety activities.”
He said they got good marks on their existing staff training program. Another recommended change was creating a hotline anyone can call anonymously to report suspected child abuse.
Improving safety was the goal, but steps taken to earn the accreditation could also help save money on insurance costs, Duro said.
“We're now serving one out of four children in the Treasure Valley,” he said. “We're going to do everything that we can to keep our eyes on people and on children, and we're going to respond when something happens.”
