It is very important to understand and establish healthy boundaries between  staff, volunteers and all personnel employed by the WPY and youth.  While we both require and trust that our volunteers will behave appropriately with youth, it is helpful to remember that some behavior and/or language can violate the necessary distance that must be maintained at all times between volunteers and youth. Good boundaries are the result of mature awareness and introspection.  The good intentions of volunteers are not enough to protect you from an appearance of impropriety.  Volunteers must ask themselves not only, “What do I intend?” but, “How might this look to someone else?”

As volunteers we need to be as mindful of our behavior with youth of our own gender as we are with those of the opposite gender. The youth we serve, however endearing they might be, are not our children, our peers or our siblings. They are often impressionable and are not always developmentally sophisticated enough to interpret our behavior or language. We must be conscious of how we appear to a member at all times. These admonitions in no way are meant to encourage us to be aloof, distant or uncaring.  Kindness, concern and warmth can be properly conveyed without ever “crossing the line” of propriety.

In general, to protect the youth we serve and to protect ourselves, keep the following ideas at the forefront of our interactions with the young people we work with:

• It is our job to build and maintain proper BOUNDARIES (not barriers) with youth.
• Be as mindful of boundaries with youth of the same sex as the opposite sex. 
• The youth we serve are not our peers, our siblings or our children. 

• Volunteers are not permitted to have any material on their WPY devices that could be considered unprofessional, inappropriate or unwholesome.

• Sexually explicit or provocative material does not belong on any computer in the WPY office or in any location where WPY programs and services are delivered.

• Youth may communicate with volunteers only via their work, school or WPY email addresses, WPY phone numbers (including Google Voice), and/or WPY-approved SMS platform (eg Mogli). Personal or home email addresses or phone numbers of WPY volunteers should not be shared with youth.
  
  

• Home or personal email accounts should not be used to communicate with youth.  

• The content of email communication should pertain to WPY matters only.  The content of any reply by volunteers to a student’s email should be of a professional, appropriate and wholesome nature. 

• Instant messaging and/or chat sessions between volunteers and youth are strictly forbidden. 

• Communication with youth via volunteers’s personal Social Networking Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. is strictly forbidden. Volunteers may engage appropriately with youth via WPY social media. All WPY social media accounts will be monitored by the Executive Director.

• Volunteers may not share any magazines, literature, photos, videos or music with youth that would generally be considered unwholesome or “adult.”  These same “adult” materials should not be present on WPY premises or anywhere that WPY programs or services are being delivered. 

• Personal photos in volunteer spaces should be of appropriate content.

• It is advisable for volunteers to express themselves to youth with physical contact through a handshake or high-five.  Verbal expressions of approval and encouragement are emotionally satisfying to youth.

• Physical contact between volunteers and youth through athletic activities must be supervised. A hug, a pat on the back, or placing arms around the shoulders of a student, when appropriate, should be done only in public or plain view of others.

• Do not let youth hang on you or sit on your lap.

• No pats on the buttocks, no backrubs, massages or other similar touching.

• Volunteers are reminded that anything they say can be repeated by others and may cause embarrassment. 

• Language of a sexual, vulgar or provocative nature or in a teasing, deriding or sarcastic tone has no place at WPY or anywhere WPY programs and services are being delivered. 

• Youth should never be exposed to inappropriate personal information relating to volunteers.

• As a general rule, we should not discuss our love life, sex life, romances or any other deeply personal information with youth. 

• Volunteers should not share their home telephone number with youth.  The only circumstance in which youth should have and make use of a volunteer member’s phone number should be in the context of WPY activities. 

• Volunteers should not call youth at home or allow youth to call them at home for social purposes. 

• Telephone conversations of a social nature between volunteers and youth should not take place.

• There should be few, if any, instances when volunteers must be alone with youth.

• When volunteers are conferring with youth who want to speak in private, the office or room door may only be closed if that room has visual access. 

• If volunteers are engaging with youth on a virtual platform (e.g. Zoom, Google Meet, etc) without the presence of WPY staff, meetings must be recorded and shared with WPY. 

• Do not let youth wear your clothes or have access to your personal belongings.    
• Avoid being alone in a locker room/bathroom with youth who are showering or changing clothes.

Record keeping is a necessary means of protecting all volunteers and youth.  If you are accused of impropriety or are a witness to an incident which is the basis of such an accusation, write down all details (Date, time, who was present, who said what, who did what?) before memory fades.  

As volunteers we hold positions of responsibility and our first obligation is to youth, who are entrusted to our care.  In the course of an investigation into accusations of impropriety, we must never withhold information or provide false or misleading information out of loyalty to a family member, friend or co-worker.  Please remember that our first and last priority is always the protection of the emotional, physical and mental well-being of the youth entrusted to us.