Criminal Background Checks and Volunteers
News reports indicate that organizations that accept volunteers may not always do a criminal background check on those volunteers. If you are an organization who works with volunteers, do a criminal background check, says the Corporation for National and Community Service. And if you have a loved one who comes into contact with volunteers, make sure the organization they are affiliated with has screened its volunteers. Screening can be done through services like veromi.com. On this site, you can do a variety of checks, including a criminal background check. The Office of Inspector General at the Corporation for National and Community Service gives the following tips for companies when it comes to checking into a volunteer's past:

• Consult with experts and undergo training to set up an effective screening program. Information and training on effective screening and the use of criminal background checks is available to companies from a number of sources, including the Washington, D.C.-based Nonprofit Risk Management Center. Also, The Virginia Mentoring Institute offers a handbook and course on volunteer screening that focuses on risk management.
• Be wary of certain types of volunteer candidates, including those who have had extensive involvement in youth programs, but exclude activities involving people their own age. That's because pedophiles and other sex offenders are drawn to programs in which they can stalk juveniles.
• Conduct criminal background checks on all volunteers and employees who will have substantial contact with children, the elderly and other vulnerable persons.
• Demand several types of identification from applicants and check the authenticity of each document.
• Familiarize yourself with all available national, state and local sources of criminal background information.
• Use driving records and registries of convicted sex offenders and child and elder abusers
• If law enforcement data is not readily accessible for your state or locality, consult with local officials about available records
• If you have doubts about an applicant, expand your screening or reject him or her.