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 event applications and accepts the event participants. If there are no concerns then Reliant will accept the applicant without any further steps needed. If a few smaller concerns are found, Reliant may still accept with no further review needed.
CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTReliant needs to first verify that the program participant's assessment shows that they have responded with a YES to the Confidentiality Agreement on the event assessment. (We have added this new question to the assessment in the AGREEMENT Section asking for the participant's permission to discuss their 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 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 would like to move forward with the acceptance. |
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).
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
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. |
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.
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.
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.
Those scenarios include, but are not limited to:
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.
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