All prospective leaders and volunteers who work with children must submit clearances prior to the commencement of services.
Brothers and Sisters,
At Living Hope Church, we are grateful to God for all our volunteers who serve our church in a variety of ways. In particular we are thankful for our dozens of children and youth ministries workers. Caring for children and nourishing faith in the young is a precious responsibility and privilege. As part of serving with young people, we must hold ourselves to a high standard in keeping with our calling in Christ, and also according to the laws set by the governing authorities God has placed us under.
Pennsylvania State Law requires that all organizations which have volunteers who work with children ages 0-17 to undergo background checks for all child-related activities. For Living Hope Church, that means that all of our Children’s Ministry, Youth Ministry, as well as our Elders, Deacons, and Staff must complete and turn in all three of the following background clearances before they can serve. NOTE: All volunteer clearances are FREE. If you are on a page that shows payment required, you are on an “employee clearance page,” not a volunteer page.
1) Report of Criminal History from Pennsylvania State Police.
Request a Criminal History. You will want to obtain an ‘online request’. Make sure you select that you want a ‘Volunteer Check’, which incurs no cost. Follow directions to complete clearance. When you receive your results, the certificate should show as a PDF File. Please retain that for your own records and email a copy to Donna Sue at office@findlivinghope.com.
2) Child Abuse History Certification from the Department of Human Services
(www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis/public/home)
Create an Individual Account and save your login info! You will need to supply addresses to previous places you have lived to complete this form. It may take more time (up to two weeks) for the report to come back. You can go to the website and login to check the progress. Please email a copy of the result in PDF form to Donna Sue at office@findlivinghope.com.
3) Federal Criminal History Record (Requires fingerprinting)
A fingerprint-based federal history (FBI) submitted through the PA State Police or its authorized agent is required for all volunteers. Living Hope Church has an agreement with PA Department of Human Services to pay for these clearances for you.
NOTE: **Before beginning this process, please contact the church office for a “No Charge Authorization Code”, which you will need to complete the form free of charge. When you log into the identogo system, enter the service code for DHS Volunteers is 1KG6ZJ. You will then want to ‘Schedule or Manage Appointment’. From here you will be asked to fill out basic identity info and setup a 10-minute appointment at a location near you. The Paul Smith Library, across from the Shrewsbury YMCA, will be convenient for many of you.
If you have already obtained any of these clearances for another reason (work requirement, youth sports coaching, volunteering with another organization, etc.), and they are still valid, you may turn them in to Donna Sue.
Thank you for your faithful service to Christ, and for partnering with us in ministering to children and youth!
Volunteers are required to obtain updated clearances every 60 months.
For further questions, please email:
- Jan Null (jan@findlivinghope.com) or
- Matt Kozma (pastormatt@findlivinghope.com).
Additional information on all clearances can be found HERE.