Every year about this time a number of clients start ordering background checks for their respective youth organization and for summer camps. The youth organizations can vary from sports associations to Big Brother-type associations that mentor boys and girls for several weeks out of the year. There are the camps, the day camps and overnight camps, who will order background checks on administrative staff and counselors.
Not every camp or youth organization conducts background checks. Some organizations, I would imagine, base their hiring and preemployment screening practices on other screening practices. In many cases, the human resource personnel or hiring people already know the applicants and are familiar with them and their histories. In other cases, well I suppose they are either limited by budgetary constraints or put their faith in the overall goodwill of human kind.
According to a story on ABC News, Director of the Scout Crest Camp, Becca Army, “can’t imagine running a camp program without having checked the backgrounds of the people that would be working with these girls. ” Her camp is based in Florida. While Florida requires daycare centers to be licensed and inspected, summer camps are not. They are not inspected by the county, by the Department of Children and Families or by any state agency. According to the story, those camps not licensed or inspected are not mandated to run background checks on their personnel.
What with the number of sexual predators and those with scary criminal records out there not only looking for work, but looking to work with kids, it would seem imperative that camps conduct background checks on counselors and administrators. Conducting background searches would help avoid any terrible incident that could damage a child. There are also liability factors and the camp’s reputation at stake. Background checks would go a long way to putting the camper’s parents at ease.
Check them out before you hire. And before there is an incident.
