Youth Protection for Rotary International (“RI”) is a top priority. Many of our clubs engage with youth on a regular basis through their participation in Rotary Youth Exchange, RYLA, Interact, High School student of the month awards, and other avenues.
(RYE during a successful TriCon 2024 event at Greenbay!)
District 6250 and each of our clubs are guided by the following RI “Statement of Conduct for Working With Youth” when interacting with youth.
Rotary International strives to create and maintain a safe environment for all youth who participate in Rotary activities. To the best of their ability, Rotary members, their partners, and other volunteers must safeguard the children and young people with whom they come into contact and protect them from physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
As you might expect, our clubs participating with Rotary Youth Exchange have very exacting rules, regulations and requirements that must be followed. These rules come from our Federal Government, CSRYE (“Central States Rotary Youth Exchange”), NAYEN (“North American Youth Exchange Network”) and our District 6250 to name just a few of our governing bodies.
While the club rules for dealing with non-RYE students such as interact, RYLA and others do not require interaction with certain federal agencies, CSRYE and NAYEN, the threshold to protect our youth remains the same. If your club deals with youth in any capacity, your club should have policies and safeguards in place. Now is a great time to review those policies and safeguards.
Please plan to participate in our upcoming online trainings and educational opportunities for clubs in the 1st quarter of 2025. These trainings will be led by our District 6250 Youth Protection Officer and team.
In the meantime, you can review and compare your club policies and programs to the templates provided by RI at the following links.
Youth protection resources for members
Rotary provides comprehensive resources for clubs and districts that participate in youth programs so they can confidently implement our youth protection policies and act to prevent abuse and harassment:
- Rotary Youth Protection Guide
- Protecting Youth Program Participants (online course)
- Electronic and Online Safety Considerations
- Developing a Crisis Management Plan
- Rotary Code of Policies, section 2.120.
Finally, in case you forgot to put these dates on your calendar last month, I want to be sure that three key dates are saved on your calendar.
- Vibrant Club Workshop – To be held in Madison, WI on January 11th, 2025. ALL Rotarians are invited.
- District Conference – TriCon, our combined three district conference, will be held in April 25-26, 2025, in Brookfield, WI. ALL Rotarians are invited.
- Rotary International Convention - June 21-25, 2025, in Calgary, Canada. ALL Rotarians are invited.
I hope to see you all there.
Respectfully,
Todd Restel
District Governor 6250