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Reliant reviews Collegiate's Leadership Training applications and accepts the event participants. If there are no concerns then Reliant will accept the applicant without any further steps needed.  This page outlines the steps taken for applications that have concerns. If Reliant sees anything of concern with an applicant, Reliant event coordinator (Sarah) will send an email to the appropriate LT director to inform them of the specific concern.  

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CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

There is one important caveat to these concerns...before Reliant can move forward with:

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Reliant needs to first verify that the LT participant's application shows that they have responded with a YES to the Confidentiality Agreement on the LT application.  (We have added this new question to the LT application in the AGREEMENT Section asking for the participant's permission to discuss their LT application answers with their local pastor or named reference.) We will be required to honor their answer.  If they respond NO, then Reliant will inform the LT Director that we see a concern but since they have answered the Confidentiality question with NO we do not have permission to discuss this further.  Reliant will then give their recommendation to the LT Director. 

There are two categories of Concerns on LT applications. 

Level One Concerns

These are more typical red flags (pornography, alcohol, sexual purity, etc.) where the applicant has slipped up on occasion and they are seeking help and their named reference knows about it and knows that they are working through it.  For these types of concerns, we just want to make sure the LT Director is OK with accepting them so Reliant is just looking for the LT Director to say yes (rather than having Reliant make the final decision since :LT Directors will be spending the summer with them).

Level Two Concerns

The other type of concern is the more serious concern (self harm,  consistently/habitually making bad choices, suicidal thoughts, multiple concerns listed, the named reference mentions nothing about their struggles, etc.) where we will ask the LT Director to speak with the applicant's local pastor or local spiritual reference and have them conduct a local, in person interview and discuss the concern(s) with the LT applicant.  We will ask them to document and summarize the discussion with an email and send it to Reliant.  

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Reliant would prefer to leave the overall acceptance criteria up to the LT directors and local pastors; however, there are certain issues that Reliant must be involved and follow up with in order to protect both Collegiate and Reliant form liability, risk and legal issues. 

RELIANT AND COLLEGIATE DECIDE ACCEPTANCE  TOGETHER

Those scenarios include, but are not limited to: 

• severe depression/anxiety (hospitalized, panic attacks)
• any kind of self harm/abuse (eating disorders, cutting, etc.)
• suicidal thoughts or attempts
• substance abuse (drunkenness, prescription drug abuse, etc.)
• illegal drugs
• sexual addiction
• parental issues
• multiple (more serious) concerns listed
• their spiritual reference is unaware of the serious struggles listed by the participant
• or their spiritual reference listed more serious concerns that the participant did not.  

These above scenarios do not mean automatic Reliant rejection from LT acceptance. It just means lots of additional follow up for information and email trails to be able to provide legal protection for Reliant and the Collegiate LT program to prove we did our due diligence. These scenarios will always include Reliant asking the local pastor to follow up with the individual participant with an in-person interview discussing the concerns and then giving Reliant their candid thoughts prior to potential LT acceptance. It will then include the overall approval of the LT director as well as the approval of Reliant. It may also include requiring the LT participant to have continued follow up meetings with a pastor during the LT program.  It will almost always include a conditional acceptance email from Reliant that is sent to the participant which strengthens our written legal protection for the program to show that we did our due diligence.

CONDITONAL ACCEPTANCE EMAIL

This conditional acceptance email has the potential to sound more legalistic due to the needed legal sounding wording requirements. It is advised that if there is the need to send a conditional acceptance email then we ask that the local pastor share with the participant that they will be receiving an email from Reliant asking them to refrain from the concerned struggles/behavior and letting them know that there is a possibility that the LT director may ask them to leave the program if they do not follow the LT policies while in attendance of the program.  Again, the conditional email will only be sent AFTER the local pastor has already met with the individual to discuss the concerns and emailed Reliant with the follow up info from the conversation to confirm their approval of the acceptance of that participant.  

Here is a copy of the Reliant Conditional Acceptance Email:

Hello!

Thank you for applying to the ___LT program administered by Reliant. At this point, you should have received a general acceptance email from the ___ LT program.

We appreciate the fact that you were open and even willing to meet and discuss your application answers with your local pastor or spiritual reference.  We are thankful that you have expressed your commitment to growing in the areas outlined as concerns on your LT application.  Leadership Training can challenge individuals physically, spiritually and emotionally. Also, for those that are already struggling in certain areas, LT can be a challenge to not revert back to old habits or areas of weakness during the program.  We hope that this summer helps you find growth in these areas of concern.

Therefore, we want to inform you that Reliant is conditionally accepting you into the LT program with full knowledge of these concerns. Conditional acceptance means that Reliant reserves the right to continue to monitor

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 your situation, make suggestions,

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and even make recommendations for medical attention or professional counseling

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if necessary.  In addition, we need you to know that while at LT if your LT director feels that you are not displaying the

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character

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outlined in the LT

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policies or they see continued struggle in the areas of concern, then Reliant in agreement with the LT director reserves the right to

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remove

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you from the LT program.  

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We encourage you to please ask for help and accountability this summer in your areas of concern.  Please be open with your friends, Reliant missionaries attending the program with you, and your LT program leaders. If you have any questions along the way please don’t hesitate to ask.

We pray that you will see God do amazing things in your life this summer.

PARENTAL CONCERNS

In 2017 there was only one participant that Reliant choose not to accept and that was due to a parent saying “absolutely No” to their child attending Honduras LT.

The only case that Reliant would say absolutely NO to accepting an applicant, is in cases such as where the parent has clearly stated that in no way they want their son/daughter to attend LT. It would say on the application "WE HAVE PERSONALLY ADVISED OUR SON/DAUGHTER NOT TO PARTICIPATE FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS".  and an example of a reason would be... "I have read that this location has a high crime rate and as her mom, I am NOT OK with this."  In the case of a parent saying no way they absolutely can not go, then Reliant cannot accept them due to insurance liability reasons.  

In the scenario of parental concerns, Reliant will ask the local pastor or LT director to follow up with parent and probably follow up with the LT applicant to help relieve concerns.  Emails and documentation will be needed to confirm that parents are willing to move forward with their child’s participation in the program.  If the parent has clearly written “No, my child may not attend”, Reliant and Collegiate must respect the desires of the parent and will unfortunately not be able to accept the applicant into the LT program due to insurance and liability reasons.

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In general, most parents say they have concerns and those are usually adequately addressed after the parents have a discussion with the LT Director.  You may see written on the application: "WE ARE NOT OPPOSED TO OUR SON/DAUGHTER PARTICIPATING, BUT WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING RESERVATIONS THAT WE SIMPLY WANT TO MAKE RELIANT AWARE OF"....... and that usually follows with a question or concern from the parent. Reliant will then send an email to the LT Director to ask that the Director follow up with the parent to discuss and seek to resolve the reservations/concerns.

ACCEPTANCE CONCERNS DECIDED ON THE LOCAL PASTOR/LT DIRECTOR COLLEGIATE LEVEL

There may be other concern scenarios where Reliant would like the LT director and/or local pastor to be aware and to give their consent before approval/acceptance, but Reliant is not requiring a follow up meeting between the local pastor and individual and Reliant will not send a conditional acceptance email unless requested by the LT director. These are concerns that Reliant wants to get LT director approval for, but we do not seem them as serious enough to need follow up discussion with the students (unless the LT director requests it).

Those scenarios include, but are not limited to:

• Depression/anxiety (seeing a counselor and/or taking medication)

• Alcohol usage (habitual underage drinking and/or lack of seeing underage drinking as an issue)

• Sexual purity (continued issue and/or no accountability listed)

• Pornography/masturbation (continued issue and/or no accountability listed),

• Multiple concerns listed

• Spiritual reference is unaware of the struggles listed by the participant

• or the spiritual reference listed struggles that the participant did not.

We want to leave the final acceptance decision of these concerns in the hands of the local pastor and LT director that will be with the participant all summer.

ACCEPTANCE DECIDED ON A RELIANT LEVEL

There are a few smaller more frequently seen concerns listed below that typically appear on applications. It is Reliant’s understanding that in these scenarios a LT director and/or local pastor does not need to be notified and that acceptance is considered approved without notifying Collegiate and is simply accepted with no questions by Reliant.

• If a participant mentions that they have struggled once or twice with underage drinking

• If they have slipped once or twice with sexual purity but it is no longer a struggle

• If they struggle with masturbation but have accountability