The state of California has mandated that all volunteers and staff who are in contact with Girl Scouts must take Mandated Reporter Training and must be fingerprinted as part of their background screening process. The link to the training can be found here: MyGS Account - GSLearn
A Frequently Asked Questions document regarding AB506 can be found here: https://www.gsnorcal.org/content/dam/girlscouts-gsnorcal/documents/volunteer_resources/risk/ab506-faq.pdf
For additional information, please check the following resources:
· U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Child Welfare
· How to Report Suspected Child Maltreatment: Reporting Abuse
· Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect: Mandatory Reporters
· CDC Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention
Physical and Sexual Child Abuse and Neglect. Physical, verbal, emotional or sexual abuse of girls is forbidden. Sexual pressure, sexual advances, improper touching, sexual communication, such as, text messaging, and sexual activity of any kind with Girl Scout members is not tolerated. If you witness or experience any behavior of this nature, notify appropriate council staff immediately. Incidences of abuse of any kind will result in immediate council intervention.
Emotional Safety. Adults are responsible for making Girl Scouts a place where girls are as safe emotionally as they are physically. Protect the emotional safety of girls by creating a team-spirited environment and coach girls to honor this agreement. Team-spirit agreements typically encourage behaviors like respecting diverse feelings and opinions, resolving conflicts constructively, avoiding physical and verbal bullying, avoiding clique behavior, practicing fairness, and showing positive and helpful communication with others.
Mental Health and Safety. As an adult volunteer overseeing the activities and behaviors of young girls, and similar to child abuse, you may witness other signs of harmful tendencies, such as, self-harm. Self-harm can take a physical form, such as, cutting, burning, bruising, excessive scratching, hair pulling, poisoning, or drug use. Other tendencies of self-harm are suicidal ideations that can be expressed verbally or with the written word. Another harmful expression involves harm to others which can be detected verbally or with physical aggression. If a situation of this nature is observed or comes to your attention in any form, always notify an appropriate council staff member, e.g., your VSM (Volunteer Support Manager) immediately and follow GSNorCal’s guidelines with respect to next steps. The CDC provides informative guidance around identifying and responding to harmful behaviors: Self-Directed Violence and Other Forms of Self-Injury and also a section on at-risk youth Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Youth at Risk.
Youth Violence and Bullying. Youth violence or bullying is also not tolerated in Girl Scouts. Youth violence occurs when young people intentionally use physical force or power to threaten or harm others. Bullying is a form of youth violence. Volunteers should become familiar with the signs, risk factors, and preventive measures against this type of behavior. If you witness or experience any behavior of this nature, notify your Volunteer Support Manager for guidance. The CDC provides excellent resources on this topic, including:
· CDC Youth Violence
· CDC Bullying
· CDC Youth Violence Prevention
Staff Support. For additional information or support from GSNorCal Staff, please email info@gsnorcal.org.