Protecting Your Congregation: Proactive Planning for Managing Threats

This workshop is live online via Zoom. A recording will also be available to registrants to view at their convenience.

Our houses of worship should be safe spaces for everyone that walks in the front door, whether it’s for Sunday services, to access the daycare that shares your building, or for a special event. Congregations face a unique set of safety and security challenges that they didn’t just a few years ago. How can churches be proactive to prevent violence rather than just reactive as bad things are unfolding?

This workshop will help your congregation build a threat management process that uses mostly existing resources, and creates necessary lines of communication. We will discuss:

• Incorporating information and discussions about safety and human relationships into worship and congregational life
• How to create a safety team
• The on-going threat assessment process in a church
• The daily, weekly, yearly work needed
• Building relationships with your police department and other outside resources

You will learn concrete ways to focus on security in your buildings and property, participant safety for church events and ministries, and safety from external threats. This workshop will also help you to recognize when and how to get additional outside help when specific concerns arise that might be outside of your preparation.

This workshop is designed for church staff and leaders, building and property committees and trustees, anyone helping to make security decisions, or are involved in an outward-facing ministry like a child care center, shelter, food pantry, etc.

Trudy Good, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in community health and a Certified Threat Manager. Trudy is the director of Good Havens: Safer Places, an organization that is committed to creating safety in the places that we live, work, and play. Trudy regularly assists organizations in taking a proactive stance to violence and risk, with more than 20 years of experience in clinical risk management and specializes in assessing risk in community settings. Her risk and threat assessment work has been with corporate employers, medical settings, universities, schools, and churches. She provides Threat Assessment Evaluations, consultation on potential threats, and consultation and training for an organization’s Threat Assessment processes. She is a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.

All sales are non-refundable.