Child safe standards

At the Y, we consider the safety and wellbeing of children and young people to be our highest priority.

We're accredited by the Australian Childhood Foundation as a child-safe organisation. We've achieved this accreditation by ensuring that child-safe practices are embedded into everything we do.

Our commitments

To ensure a child safe organisation, we commit to:

• Creating an environment for children and young people to be safe and to feel safe
• Using best practice standards in the recruitment, screening and employment of YMCA people
• Providing safe physical environments that when possible, are designed with children, young people, their families and YMCA people
• Regularly auditing our facilities and immediate surrounding environments to assess their safety
• Monitoring our online environments to ensure their safety
• Promoting, supporting and building positive relationships between children and young people, and other users accessing our facilities
• Ensuring user groups of our facilities comply with our Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy

Our team

We are committed to providing a safe environment for all children and young people. We recruit, train and support our staff and volunteers to care for the children and young people in our programs and services. Our Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy applies to every staff member and volunteer at the Y.

This means all employees and volunteers must;

• Maintain a valid Working With Children Check
• Complete a satisfactory police check
• Complete the Australian Childhood Foundation’s Safeguarding Children and Young People training course

We ensure that our staff and volunteers take all reasonable steps to keep children and young people safe, and to promptly respond to any concern regarding the safety or development of children in our care.

National Safeguarding Unit

Our commitment to the safety of children and young people is shared by all YMCA associations across Australia.

We have established a National Safeguarding Unit to drive a collective approach across all states and territories. 

This unit develops frameworks and strategies which are implemented by local teams in each association.

Visit the Y Australia website for more information on how to contact the National Safeguarding Unit.