Why Involve Family Volunteers: Liability
Many organizations are concerned about the liability of involving youth in their volunteer projects. It is always wise to consult with your attorney and/or insurance company before undergoing a youth or family volunteer program, but there are several steps you can take to reduce your risk of liability.
The Volunteer Family is a volunteer matching service and we do not accept responsibility for the actions of our volunteers or the agencies they serve. However, we provide the following tips and resources to help you if you are concerned about this issue.
- Some D&O policies cover volunteers. To determine whether your policy protects volunteers, schedule a review with your insurance company. If volunteers are not covered, you may want to purchase a policy that provides such coverage.
- You should ensure that your organization also has general liability coverage, which covers bodily injuries to third parties. If volunteers are driving, it is a good idea to ensure that they have car insurance. To cover employees, your organization should also have workers compensation. We suggest that part of your workers compensation package should be accident insurance for volunteers.
- Your organization and volunteer coordinator should ensure that volunteer services assigned to a minor are performed in a non-hazardous environment and comply with all appropriate requirements of child labor laws. For a listing of child labor law contacts in your area, log on to http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/youthlabor/YouthEmploymentTraining.htm.
- We always recommend that each organization get the written consent of a parent or legal guardian before allowing volunteers under 18 to volunteer.
The Volunteer Family does NOT accept liability for any of the youth volunteers who find volunteer opportunities through our organization. The Volunteer Family also does not perform CORI or SORI checks directly, since the need for background checks varies according to the agency where the volunteer will be performing the service.
If your organization is familiar with and complies with these regulations, your risk will be greatly reduced and you will be able to begin to benefit from the help of family volunteers.
To read more about Insurance for Volunteers, consider the Volunteers Insurance Service program, provided by www.cimaworld.com. Many of their participating organizations say it makes a great difference in recruiting good volunteers. An article for your reference is provided here.
If you are interested in finding out information about liability or purchasing an insurance policy for your organization, please log on to www.ajg.com.