In order to assure the safe and successful participation of youth and adults at gatherings, the following code of behavior is to be followed. You are expected to represent your parish, school, and the Archdiocese during all gatherings. You are encouraged to display the mature, responsible character .  

SOME NORMS FOR PARTICIPATION: 

·         Participants are expected to take direction from all adult leaders. 

·         Individuals are responsible for their own actions, and will be asked to assume the consequences for their inappropriate behavior. 

·         Disruptive behavior can result in serious injury to persons and/or property. Each participant is legally and financially responsible for the removal, defacing, or willful damage to public or private property.

·         Inappropriate language, clothing, or items are not acceptable at events. This includes any which is obscene, profane, or inappropriate to the activities of the Archdiocese. 

·         The possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages and/or use of tobacco/cannabis products or illegal drugs by minors is not tolerated.

·         For the protection and safety of all participants, Youth are not to hurt anyone verbally, emotionally, physically, or sexually. Treat everyone with respect, patience, integrity, courtesy, dignity, and consideration. 

·         Participants may not possess weapons of any kind.  

·         We do not insure personal property against theft or loss.  Please exercise caution regarding your personal items. 

·         Cell phones should be turned off during liturgy and meetings. Texting during these times is also generally not appropriate. 

·         Youth are to report any emergencies, concerns, strangers or intruders, and safety issues immediately to adult leaders or chaperones

·         In the event that behavior requires extreme action, Parents will be contacted and participants will be sent home.  

We respectfully ask for your cooperation and assume participants will have no trouble adhering to this code of behavior.

Our Youth Ministry policies fully comply with those set forth by the Archdiocese of Washington in the “Policies for the Pastoral Use of Social Media and Electronic Communications” 

COMMUNICATIONS

We communicate via:

• parish website and eNotify: www.lfparish.org
• email address: youthministry@lfparish.org
• social networking site: Instagram- littleflower.ym
• text reminders: only if requested, using FlockNote
• parish telephone (YM does not have a dedicated phone line)

Text and email messages to the youth and parents are the primary means of communicating YM information. Text messaging is the most effective way to communicate with teens and with many parents. Email messages are nearly as effective. Therefore, a cell phone and a email address are encouraged for each parent and for each youth. The email address and cell phone for students may be the same as the parent email and cell phone number. However, separate email addresses are preferred and requested, especially for high school students.

All Youth Ministry communications will be “public.”  This means:

• Every channel of communication has administrative access by multiple parish staff/volunteers. (Ex. multiple Virtus-certified adults have access to our website and its communications, our Instagram profile, and all messages both current and past)
• Youth Ministry communications are sent in the form of group e-mails, texts, & public social media posts.  If there is a very rare occasion for digital communication between a Youth Ministry staff/volunteer and an individual minor (Ex. to answer a submitted question) our guidelines require that parent(s) or legal guardian(s) be openly copied on all such communication.

Events/activities will be announced via parish announcements and social media.  Upon registering their child to participate in our program, parents will select how they wish to have youth ministry staff contact them in regards to all program-related activities.  Parents may elect to receive personal emails and/or text messages for themselves and/or their child if preferred.  If texting needs to be used during any off-campus trips as a communication tool, it will be through group messages only.

PHOTOS & MEDIA

Photos enable us to capture moments in our programming, share news and announcements, and give others a chance to see our young parishioners as active members in our Church.   We would like to use some pictures or video snippets from youth ministry events and gatherings for flyers, parish and diocesan publications, and the ministry Instagram page.  If parents/guardians prefer that their child is NOT photographed, simply indicate so on the registration form and we will be very happy to honor your wishes.  

To protect children’s privacy, children’s names are not published with a photo.  Exceptions would have specific and prior adult permission.  

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Currently our only social media communications will be through public posts on Instagram.  Our program does not keep a presence on any other social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.  Additionally our Instagram account will not initiate or accept “friend” requests from students (individuals must elect to follow our account) nor will youth be “tagged” or identified by name. 

If your student is active on social media, we recommend that you also have an account on that platform so you can monitor communication as well as be kept up to date with programming and news.