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The instructions below are specific to Collegiate LT Assessment. But, the process would be similar for other events where Reliant was administering the application for approval to be attending the program. |
Concerned Assessments go through multiple stages of Review.
Reliant reviews program event applications and accepts the event participants. If there are no concerns then Reliant will accept the applicant without any further steps needed. (The director can also request that they see the list of everyone who is ready to be approved by Reliant to confirm their acceptance). 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 program 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:
- Sharing the concern with the appropriate program director
- Pursuing a local pastoral interview with the applicant's pastor, or
- Follow up with their named reference(s) given by the applicant
If a few smaller concerns are found, Reliant may still accept with no further review needed.
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CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTReliant needs to first verify that the program participant's |
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assessment shows that they have responded with a YES to the Confidentiality Agreement on the event |
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assessment. (We have added this new question to the |
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assessment in the AGREEMENT Section asking for the participant's permission to discuss their |
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assessment 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 |
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collegiate reviewer 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 collegiate reviewer and program director who can decide if they |
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would like to move forward with the acceptance. |
Reliant would prefer to leave the overall acceptance criteria up to the program directors and local pastors; however, there are certain issues that Reliant must be involved and follow up with in order to protect both our partner churches/networks and Reliant form liability, risk and legal issues.
RELIANT AND THE PROGRAM DIRECTORS 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 program acceptance. It just means additional follow up for information and email trails to be able to provide legal protection for Reliant and the program to prove we did our due diligence. These scenarios may include Reliant asking the director or designated representative to discuss with 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 acceptance. It will then include the overall approval of the director as well as the approval of Reliant. It may also include requiring the participant to have continued follow up meetings with a pastor during the 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.
SUICIDAL CONCERNS
With concerns regarding suicidal thoughts or attempts we may require (depending on the situation) an additional condition before acceptance if the event director and Reliant are still in favor of moving forward.
The potential condition for acceptance is that we would like the participant to sign a waiver with their counselor that allows the program director (or program director and local pastor) to be able to call the counselor and get their recommendation on whether they think the participant should attend the program or not. We want the program director to be on the waiver because we want to have the ability to contact the counselor to keep the lines of communication open over the summer if a follow up conversation becomes necessary. However, we would be open to allowing a local pastor to be that person as well if the local pastor is also attending the program with them to continue following up. The participant’s acceptance is conditional on them signing the waiver and the director/local pastor being able to talk with the counselor. If they do not want to sign the waiver then that shows (an unwillingness to co-operate instead of that they are potentially hiding something) and Collegiate is not willing to accept them due to liability. If the counselor does not recommend them attending the program then we will not accept them. If after talking to the counselor, the LT director is now not convinced that they should be accepted, even if the counselor says it’s fine then we don’t accept them.
We are potentially ok moving forward with accepting them prior to the conditional acceptance being completed with the caveat that we could still potentially withdraw them after initial acceptance if after this condition is met we still feel like they should not move forward with actually attending. We suggest that they at least have the participant say they are willing to move forward, with the condition, before we accept them. The final decision is left in the directors hands to say if they would prefer we wait until the conditions have been fully met and discussed before moving forward or if they feel comfortable, we can move forward knowing we could potentially retract our acceptance.
If the participant is not currently seeing a counselor, then we may ask that they do see a licensed counselor in order to move forward with our conditions for acceptance.
We will also add on the conditional acceptance email that they commit (if possible) to continuing to meet with their counselor via phone or skype at least once a month during the months of the program. This is not always possible though as some states will not allow this to happen if for example the counselor lives in a different state than the program is occurring. We also ask that the a leader in the program meet periodically with them over the summer.
CONDITIONAL 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 or director share with the participant that they will be receiving an email from Reliant asking them to refrain from the concerned struggles/behavior, discussing the conditions for acceptance, and letting them know that there is a possibility that the program director may ask them to leave the program if they do not follow the policies while in attendance of the program. Again, the conditional email will only be sent AFTER the local pastor/director has already met with the individual to discuss the concerns and let them know that they will receive a conditional acceptance email assuming the director wants to continue with the acceptance.
Here is a copy of the Reliant Conditional Acceptance Email:
Hello!
Thank you for applying to the ___program administered by Reliant. At this point, you should have received a general acceptance email from the ___ 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 (e.g. marijuana usage and suicidal thoughts) on your application. ________program can challenge individuals physically, spiritually and emotionally. Also, for those that are already struggling in certain areas, ______program 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 _____program with full knowledge of these concerns. Conditional acceptance means that Reliant reserves the right to continue to monitor your situation, make suggestions, and even make recommendations for medical attention or professional counseling if necessary. Your acceptance to the program is conditional based on you continuing to....(e.g. refrain from marijuana usage between now and the end of the program and continuing to meet with a counselor throughout the program).
.________. In addition, we need you to know that while at this program if your program director feels that you are not displaying the character outlined in the policies or they see continued struggle in the areas of concern, then Reliant in agreement with the program director reserves the right to remove you from the program.
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 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 Leadership Training.
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 director to follow up with parent and probably follow up with the 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 the church/network must respect the desires of the parent and will unfortunately not be able to accept the applicant into the program due to insurance and liability reasons.
In general, most parents say they have concerns and those are usually adequately addressed after the parents have a discussion with the 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 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/PROGRAM DIRECTOR LEVEL
There may be other concern scenarios where Reliant would like the program 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 event participant and Reliant will not send a conditional acceptance email unless requested by the director. These are concerns that Reliant wants to get director approval for, but we do not seem them as serious enough to need follow up discussion with the students (unless the director requests it).
If noteworthy concerns are found then the assessment is sent to the Collegiate Review stage. This typically means the Collegiate Reviewer will talk with the local pastor about the concerns and usually will ask the local pastor to meet with the applicant to discuss these concerns.
If the concerns are more serious, then the assessment is moved into the National Review stage. The Collegiate Reviewer will first confirm that the LT director would like to move forward. If so, then the national reviewers are asked to approve the applicant. The national reviewers consist of Reliant leadership and Collegiate national leadership (national LT director and a member of the collegiate national board).
Acceptance Criteria
ACCEPTANCE FOR PARTICIPANTS WITH NO CONCERNS
Reliant will automatically accept all participants that have no concerns on their application.
There are also a few smaller more frequently seen concerns listed below that typically appear on applications. It is Reliant’s understanding that in these scenarios the collegiate reviewer does not need to be notified and that acceptance is considered approved without notifying any further reviewers and is simply accepted with no questions by Reliant.
If a participant mentions that they have struggled with slipping once or twice with underage drinking
If they have slipped once sexual purity but it is no longer a struggle
If they struggle with masturbation but have accountability
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What happens if an applicant lies on their assessment? For reference, there was an applicant who lied on their application and was caught due to a discrepancy between what the LT applicant said and the spiritual reference said. This was the discussion/decision result. "We know that we love all these folks and want the best for them spiritually - but our responsibility is really just to determine if they are suitable for LT. At some point what we have to decide is......is knowingly lying on your application a disqualifying behavior or not? I like how we allowed there be some space for explanation (possibilities of miscommunication etc...) but I’m not sure exactly what mitigating circumstances were presented here that we would determine a ‘redo’ is in order. As a read the email thread what is saw was... this participant confessed after they got caught & feels bad. The church leaders like this participant and believe in them (which is wonderful but not surprising). I’m not all that excited about trying to determine the sincerity of an applicant’s repentance. I’m not sure we would ever be able to determine that - especially from afar - and I’m not even sure it’s our place. But I’d probably lean more towards a policy of - in the absence of extenuating circumstances - deceit in your LT application will result in a denial of admission / deferral til the following year." Therefore, it was agreed upon that if an LT participant lies on their application and there weren't extenuating circumstances the result will be that they can not attend LT the program. What happens if an applicant does not want to list their struggles on the assessment? There have been instances where participants did not feel comfortable sharing all of their struggles online in the assessment. We will then work with the local church to gather that information in person with the applicant. Here is a section of an email that was sent to an applicant who sent an email to Reliant saying that they did not feel comfortable with sharing online and requested just telling their local church pastor and not Reliant. ...The LT program is an event administrated by both Reliant and Collegiate. Your church pastor is both a pastor for the Collegiate network and he is employed by Reliant and his role this summer is Collegiate LT director. Reliant does a lot of the administrative work for the Collegiate missionaries and we run the behind the scenes admin for the LT programs. In order for Reliant to be able to provide liability insurance for the LT programs we have to have an assessment and a review vetting process for all of our applicants that helps us make sure the Leadership Training program (the summer ministry designed to help train leaders for our local churches) is the best fit for those applying. I can understand the concern for putting your struggles online in this day and age. So, Reliant would be fine with you meeting with a local church leader to share your answers in person if that would make you feel more comfortable with sharing. However, because Reliant is the administrator for the event, that local church leader will then need to share what you tell him with Reliant before we could move forward with the assessment process. He can speak in generalities (we do not need specific details), but we do need to know for insurance and liability reasons if there are any concerns. So, I wanted to make sure that you understood and knew that your church leader would still be sharing that information with Reliant after you share it with him. |
ACCEPTANCE CONCERNS DECIDED ON THE COLLEGIATE REVIEW LEVEL
There may be other concern scenarios where Reliant would like the Collegiate Reviewer to decide and work together with the program director and/or local pastor to be aware and to give their consent before approval/acceptance.
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COLLEGIATE REVIEWERS DISCUSSES WITH LOCAL PASTOR/SPIRITUAL REFERENCESHere are steps that we suggest the Collegiate Reviewer taking once they receive an email from Reliant saying they have a concerned participant that warrants follow-up with the local pastor/spiritual reference and necessitates meeting one on one with the participant to discuss the concerns.
-Ask them to help you know more about who the person is and what you would be getting into by accepting them into the program.
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Those scenarios include, but are not limited to:
An applicant applies for an LT program that is not associated with the school they are attending
Depression/anxiety (seeing a counselor and/or taking medication but it seems under control)
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.
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We have had a few national reviews where we uncover that they have struggled with suicidal concerns prior to 6 months ago. As a formality, we said that all of those still needed a national review before moving forward. The heart behind that was related to how severe the past self-harm struggle was, how close to 6 months ago it occurred, do they still have suicidal thoughts, etc. and to show that we did our due diligence by having multiple eyes on it before acceptance. |
We want to leave the final acceptance decision of these concerns in the hands of the Collegiate Reviewer and local pastor and director that will be with the participant all summer.
ACCEPTANCE CONCERNS DECIDED ON
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THE NATIONAL REVIEW TEAM 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 director and/or local pastor does not need to be notified and that acceptance is considered approved without notifying the church/network and is simply accepted with no questions by Reliant. The director may also request that all acceptance names first be sent to them to confirm their acceptance prior to officially being accepted.
If a participant mentions that they have struggled with slipping once or twice with underage drinking
If they have slipped once sexual purity but it is no longer a struggle
If they struggle with masturbation but have accountability
ACCEPTANCE FOR PARTICIPANTS WITH NO CONCERNS
Reliant will automatically accept all participants that have no concerns on their application. However, the director may request that all acceptance names first be sent to them to confirm their acceptance prior to officially being accepted.
FOLLOW UP DURING THE PROGRAM
For those participants that have received a conditional email typically that email has conditions that need to be followed (for example: meeting with a staff accountability during the event to see if conditions are being followed) so follow will be required after acceptance and even during the program.
Reliant will create a google doc that lists the name of all participants that have been conditionally accepted that will be edited by the local event director and will be viewed by Reliant and in the case of Collegiate LTs it will also be viewed by an NEB member.
Updates with dates and details will need to be made to monitor progress and continued issues throughout the summer. This helps us with liability (keeping a trail of notes) as well as keeping it consistent throughout all of the events. If a new issue arises that was not on the original acceptance the director agrees to add that new issue along with a new condition to the google doc to allow Reliant and NEB representative to be aware.
In the case that one of the conditions for acceptance (or a new conditions) has not been met, the event director will discuss with Reliant and/or the Collegiate NEB member for next steps. Typically, there is grace if the condition was not met one time (depending on the severity of the issue). Be sure to write down what was discussed and create a new condition that is agreed upon by the participant saying they are aware that if the condition is again not met they will be dismissed from the program at the discretion of the event director.
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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.
With any of the above concerns, we want to create information email trails to be able to provide legal protection for Reliant, Collegiate, and the LT program to prove we did our due diligence in vetting this participant with the additional follow up that was done by the Collegiate reviewer with the local pastor and the participant. Reliant will offer candid thoughts (speaking from a legal liability standpoint) prior to potential acceptance. It will almost always include a conditional acceptance from Reliant and those conditions are sent to the participant which strengthens our written legal protection for the program to show that we have diligently vetted the participant.
For those struggling with emotional issues or self-harm there may be additional steps taken prior to acceptance such as asking a counselor's opinion or having them continue counseling over the summer. See Conditions for Acceptance for more details on conditions and the conditional acceptance email.
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ACCEPTANCE OF A MINOR
There have been times where a participant under 18 desires to attend the program. Lt@reliant.org will be notified during the assessment process and will reach out to the LT director to let them know.
In the case of the Collegiate LT program this happens often with children of Reliant missionaries who are also attending the program with their parents wanting to be participants. The YMCA has been known to hire participants under the age of 18 for the Collegiate LT participants. However, the YMCA is not legally allowed to let them live in their provided employee housing. In the case of a Reliant missionary son/daughter, the participant can live outside of the dorms on YMCA property with their parents.
If the applicant is not a child of a Reliant missionary that is also a part of the LT program, if a director wants the minor to attend the program they will need to find separate housing for that participant. The director will need to discuss the living situation options for the minor with Reliant before moving forward with finding housing off YMCA property as this is a higher liability for all
- SEE ALSO: Conditions for Acceptance
- SEE ALSO: Counseling for Event Acceptance
- SEE ALSO: Not Accepted for the Program/Event
