Youth safety

What we mean when we say safe.

“Background-checked” and “supervised” are easy things to write on a website. This page says what they actually are here: what the system enforces, and where the limits of confidentiality sit before your child ever sits down with a mentor.

In practice

Safeguards that are enforced, not promised.

Each of these is built into how NEXGEN runs day to day, rather than a policy in a drawer.

Every staff member and volunteer carries a background-check record

A background check is not a one-time box on this system. Each staff member and each volunteer has a check status on their record with the date it cleared and the date it expires, so a lapsed check is visible rather than forgotten.

Tracked per person on staff and volunteer records, with completion and expiry dates.

Only people you name can collect your child

Pickup authorisation is explicit and per child. A parent or guardian names each person who may collect them, with their relationship, a phone number and optionally a photo, and can set a start and end date for that permission or revoke it outright.

Authorised pickups are stored per child with validity dates and can be deactivated at any time.

Who can do what for a child is set deliberately, not assumed

Every adult connected to a child has explicit permissions rather than blanket access: who may view their record, register them, pay, see medical information, sign waivers, collect them, authorise other people, and receive communications. Court-ordered restrictions are recorded on the relationship itself.

Per-relationship permissions, including a court-restriction flag.

Every entry is recorded at the front desk

Members check in at the desk when they arrive: by pass, by lookup, or as a walk-in. Each check-in records who was admitted, how, and which staff member logged it, so there is an accurate record of who was in the building and when.

Front-desk check-in log, with the staff member who recorded each entry.

Consent is recorded, versioned, and revocable

Permissions such as media use are stored as consent records: what was consented to, which version of the terms, the purpose and scope, who granted it, and when. Withdrawing consent is a change to that record, not an email someone has to remember.

Versioned consent records tied to the person and household.

Day to day

The four things parents ask before a first visit.

Grouping, late pickup, phones, and what happens when a young person gets it wrong. These used to be answered with “ask us”, which is honest and useless. They are written down now.

How boys and girls are grouped

Shared parts of a programme: arrival, food, announcements, are mixed and supervised throughout. Wherever a programme splits into smaller groups it splits by age first, and each group has its own named staff. Prayer is separated. Beyond that the arrangement is set per programme rather than by one site-wide rule, because what is right for eleven-year-olds at Saturday Sessions is not what is right for a Wellness class.

  • Shared spaces are supervised by named staff at all times, never left to run themselves.
  • Prayer is separated.
  • Wellness runs as genuinely separate sessions with same-gender coaching, that one is a hard rule, not a preference.
  • Ask us for the specifics of your child’s programme before you commit. We will answer plainly rather than leave you to interpret a line on a website.

If you are late collecting your child

A member of staff stays with your young person until they are collected. There is no charge for being late, and nobody is made to feel it: traffic, work and a sibling’s bedtime are not misconduct. What we ask is that you call, because the thing that turns a late pickup into a bad evening is silence.

  • Staff stay with them. A young person is never left waiting alone, outside, or with a single unaccompanied adult.
  • At 15 minutes we call you, then your authorised pickups in the order you listed them.
  • At 60 minutes with no contact from anyone on the record, we are obliged to involve the authorities, that is a child-protection duty, not a threat, and it is why the phone number you give us has to be one you answer.
  • Repeated late pickups get a conversation about a different collection arrangement, not a penalty.

Phones

Phones are allowed. Most young people here use them to tell a parent where they are, and confiscating them would make that harder for no gain. They go down for two things: the mentor-led conversation, and prayer.

  • Down for the circle and for prayer. Those are the only two.
  • No photographing or filming another person without asking them first, that applies to staff as much as to young people.
  • Anything NEXGEN photographs for its own use is governed by the media consent on your child’s record, which you can withdraw at any time.
  • A phone used to exclude, record or humiliate somebody is a behaviour matter, and is handled as one.

What is expected, and what happens when it goes wrong

The standard is simple: nobody here is made to feel small. Most things that go wrong are ordinary: a bad temper, a stupid joke, a fifteen-year-old testing where the line is, and are dealt with by an adult in the room, in the moment, without a parent ever hearing about it. That is not us hiding things; it is us not turning adolescence into an incident report.

  • Handled in the room first: a word, a reset, a different table.
  • You get a call the same day if your child was hurt, hurt somebody, or was sent home.
  • Sending a young person home is rare and is always followed by a conversation about coming back. It is a pause, not a verdict.
  • Anything involving safety, targeted cruelty, or a young person being made unsafe by another goes to the safeguarding lead immediately, and both families are contacted.
  • A young person is never excluded permanently without a conversation with the family first.

The standard

We hold New York's child-care bar, by choice.

NEXGEN is a youth program, not a licensed child-care centre, so several of these are adopted voluntarily. That is the point: the bar is the state's, not one we set for ourselves.

Screening: the full New York child-care check, for staff and volunteers alike

Before anyone has unsupervised contact with a young person, they clear the same three-part check New York requires of licensed child-care staff: the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, a fingerprint-based state and federal criminal history check, and the national sex-offender registry. Volunteers are screened on the same basis as paid staff: the distinction matters to payroll, not to a child.

  • No unsupervised contact with young people before clearance is complete.
  • Clearances are re-run on a fixed cycle, and a lapsed clearance suspends unsupervised contact until it is renewed.
  • Anyone whose check returns a disqualifying result does not work with young people here.

Supervision: we hold New York’s school-age child-care ratios

Programming is staffed to at least the ratios New York sets for registered school-age child care: one adult for every ten children under nine, and one adult for every fifteen aged ten and over, with group sizes capped accordingly. Where an activity carries more risk, such as an off-site trip or a workshop with tools, we staff above the minimum rather than at it.

  • Under 9: at least 1 adult per 10 children, groups capped at 20.
  • Age 10 and over: at least 1 adult per 15, groups capped at 30.
  • A ratio is a floor. Trips, water, kitchens and tools get more adults, not the minimum.

One-to-one time happens in the open

Mentor Conversations and any other one-to-one time take place where another adult can see the room: an open area, or a room with an interior window and the door unlocked. A mentor is never alone with a young person behind a closed, opaque door, and never off-site or in a vehicle alone with them.

  • Visible at all times to another adult: glass, open door, or shared space.
  • No private off-site meetings and no one-to-one car journeys.
  • Contact between sessions runs through NEXGEN channels with a parent copied, not a mentor’s personal phone or private DMs.

Someone qualified is always on the floor

At least one member of staff holding current paediatric first aid and CPR certification is on site whenever programming runs. Incidents involving injury are written up the same day, and a parent or guardian is contacted the same day: not at pickup, and not in a summary at the end of term.

  • Current first aid + CPR on site during all programming.
  • Same-day written incident record; same-day contact with a parent or guardian.
  • Emergency services first for anything beyond minor first aid, family called immediately after.

Medication and allergies are handled on paper, not from memory

We do not give a young person any medication, prescription or over-the-counter, without written authorisation from a parent or guardian on file. Allergies and medical needs are recorded on the child’s record when the family enrols, and are visible to the staff running a session before it starts. Emergency medication such as an epinephrine auto-injector or an inhaler stays with the child or in a known, unlocked-to-staff location, never behind a lock a staff member has to hunt for.

  • No medication administered without written authorisation on file.
  • Allergy and medical information is recorded at enrolment and surfaced to session staff.
  • Emergency medication is immediately reachable, and food activities are checked against allergies before they run.

The building is monitored, and footage is kept for 30 days

Cameras cover entrances and shared circulation, the places people pass through. There is no camera coverage in bathrooms, changing areas, prayer spaces, or any room used for one-to-one conversation, and there never will be. Recordings are kept for 30 days and then overwritten. Footage is treated as a safeguarding record: it is reviewed in response to a specific concern, not browsed, and it is not used to monitor staff performance.

  • Entrances and shared circulation are covered.
  • Never in bathrooms, changing areas, prayer spaces, or one-to-one rooms.
  • Retained 30 days, reviewed only on a specific concern, ask early if you need footage kept.

We report as though we are mandated to, because a child cannot tell the difference

New York names specific professions as mandated reporters. Depending on how a given NEXGEN program is registered, some of our staff fall inside that list and some do not. We do not run our safeguarding on that distinction: every member of staff and every volunteer here is trained and instructed to report reasonable suspicion of abuse or maltreatment to the New York State Child Abuse Hotline, and to tell the safeguarding lead that they have done so.

  • NYS Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-342-3720. In an emergency, 911.
  • Reporting is an individual duty, no one needs permission from a manager first.
  • Retaliation against anyone who raises a concern in good faith is itself a disciplinary matter.

Suspected abuse or maltreatment can be reported directly to the New York State Child Abuse Hotline on 1-800-342-3720, at any hour, by anyone, including a young person. You do not need to go through us first.

What "private" means in Mentor Conversations

What a young person shares with their mentor stays between them, with clear exceptions we tell every young person before they ever sit down.

  • A concern that a child is being abused, neglected, or is unsafe at home.
  • A young person telling us they intend to harm themselves.
  • A risk that someone else could be harmed.
  • Any other serious, immediate threat to safety.

In those situations a mentor involves a parent or guardian, and the appropriate authorities where the law requires it. That is not a judgement made quietly after the fact: it is a limit we state openly, up front, because a promise of total secrecy is one no responsible adult can keep. We would rather a young person know exactly where the line is than discover it at the worst possible moment.

Mentoring is not therapy

Mentor Conversations are guidance, perspective, and a consistent adult who listens. They are not counselling, and mentors are not licensed mental-health professionals. When a young person needs clinical support, our role is to help the family find it, not to stand in for it.

If you are worried about your child right now, contact your doctor or call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. In an emergency, call 911.

Speak up

Raising a concern

If something worries you: about a member of staff, a volunteer, another young person, or anything you have seen in the building, tell us. You do not need to be certain, and you do not need to have proof. Raising it early is the point.

A young person can raise a concern directly. They do not have to go through a parent to do it.

Email hello@gonexgen.orgUse the contact form

Questions about how a specific program runs? Book a tour and ask us in the building.