Safe Church Commitment
OUR COMMITMENT:
Oceans Church acknowledges Gods love for all people and our responsibility as a Christian community to extend our love in God's name to all who encounter our Church.
We are committed to the safety and equity of vulnerable people including children and young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the elderly, and people with disabilities as well as people with identity or health vulnerabilities.
As an organisation that works with children, we are committed to the National Child Safe Principles.
Further, we recognise the importance of workplace health and safety in fulfilling our vision; and are committed to protecting the health, safety, and welfare of all involved.
As a member of Australian Christian Churches (ACC) family we are committed to the implementation of the ACC Child Protection policy and the ACC Safer Churches strategy within all our operations; and our training policies and processes are modelled off these.
We seek to embed a culture that protects and promotes the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable people within organisational leadership, governance, and culture. We seek to ensure that physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing for all involved.
To ensure that our commitment is fulfilled, we undertake the following:
- We exercise due diligence in the selection and ongoing supervision of Volunteers and Staff. Those working directly with vulnerable people are appropriately screened, and trained, including the signing of the Oceans Code of Conduct, Referee Checks, Working with Children Checks and specific training for their area of work.
- All staff and volunteers are trained in cultivating an environment that is safe and healthy for all people, including their responsibility to show duty of care to others.
- We provide reporting process for concerns, complaints, incidents, accidents and near misses, including a key contact point (Child Safety Officer) for all Safe Ministry matters.
- We consider safety when developing procedures through workplace consultation, provision of WHS equipment, clear outline of roles and responsibilities; and review of work methods and practices when required.
- We are committed to creating accessible environments for congregants with disabilities; with a needs-based approach.
- We have established emergency procedures and training.
- We continually review and monitor safer churches' strategies to ensure effective and contemporary approaches to embedding of safety culture for all people, at all levels.
It is important to us that everyone in our community, including children and young people are informed about their rights, and participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously; and that all our community participate in cultivating an environment that is safe and healthy for all people and promotes the wellbeing of vulnerable people.
RAISING CONCERNS
We encourage people at all levels within the church and in our community to report any concerns they have about the safety and wellbeing of people. We are committed to handling all concerns seriously, legally and in a child focused way (if concerning children).
You can send an email to us at concerns@oceans.church which will be received by our safe ministry team who will be in touch with you to discuss your contact soon.