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First Focus Joins Push to Make SafetyNET Permanent
June 10, 2009: First Focus has joined MENTOR and other leading youth service organizations in the effort to reintroduce the Child Protection Improvements Act and seek its passage this year.
The legislation would create a permanent, streamlined system to allow youth-serving organizations access to nationwide FBI fingerprint searches that are timely and affordable. It is based on the PROTECT Act pilot (SafetyNET), which mentoring organizations and others have been testing for nearly five years.
First Focus is a bi-partisan advocacy organization that is committed to making children a priority in federal policy and budget decisions and, in this instance, to making children's safety a congressional priority.
"We're pleased to lend our voice and our resources to the vital effort to ensure that potential mentors are carefully screened through the pioneering criminal background check system known as SafetyNET," said First Focus Vice President for Education, Housing and Youth Policy Phillip Lovell. "Clearly, this system is of great value to mentoring organizations, but it will be equally valuable to all youth-serving organizations that engage volunteers in their work."
MENTOR's Chief Administrative Officer Tonya Wiley said, "We are delighted that First Focus is part of the effort to advocate for this legislation. We also are grateful to have LifeLock as a SafetyNET sponsor for this critical step in the mentor screening process."
MENTOR and other leaders of the coalition actively supporting the Child Protection Improvements Act — including Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Volunteers of America, the Afterschool Alliance and National Human Service Assembly's Collaboration for Youth — welcome First Focus' involvement and leadership. National Assembly President Irv Katz noted, "First Focus brings bi-partisan leadership support to this crucially important legislation, which is very encouraging and much appreciated."
For more information about SafetyNET and the Child Protection Improvements Act, visit www.mentoring.org. To become active in helping make nationwide criminal background checks a permanent resource for volunteers working with children, join the advocacy network. |
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