Launching PAL certification: protecting children, youth, and vulnerable persons

With the birth of a unified Community of Christ in Canada mission centre comes a wonderful opportunity to shape policies and procedures that truly reflect Canadian culture, context, and legal standards. As many of you know, we are moving toward securing Canadian-based insurance coverage, which will increase our ability to be responsive and adhere to Canadian risk management policies.
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As we moved through this process, we discovered that our existing Registered Child and Youth Worker certification required updating to align with current Canadian insurance and legal requirements. This realization opened the door to something even better: the development of a made-in-Canada policy framework and certification program designed specifically for our context.

Significant care and collaboration have gone into creating a program that equips leaders to serve safely, faithfully, and confidently—while ensuring the highest standards of protection for children, youth, and vulnerable persons.

We are thrilled to launch the Program Activity Leader and Assistants (PAL) certification program this spring. This initiative represents an important step forward in strengthening our ministries and deepening our commitment to providing safe, welcoming, and accountable environments for all.

We will begin by training the trainer in March, followed by training for camping staff from April to June. Training for other leaders, including priesthood, will follow in the fall.