I was employed at Riverside Church for their summer Freedom School program, which is a reading camp for K-8th grade children. I was shocked by the level of unsafe practices that were taking place in this program. There were multiple instances of supervisors leaving all of the children unattended while the summer staff took their breaks. Also, one of the supervisors left a child behind in New Jersey during a field trip and still has her job. At any other childcare or educational facility, this would have led to the person who left a child behind losing their job. In addition, supervisors allowed a volunteer to be around the children after being told multiple times that he was touching the children too much and swearing in front of them. Staff brought their concerns about this volunteer to management many times and nothing was done. He was only removed after we contacted HR after a staff member was sexually harassed by this volunteer. Concerns about safety and overall lack of organization in this program were constantly dismissed and staff were looked down upon for bringing up safety concerns. A few other cons of working at Riverside Church for the Children’s and youth department include: -Uncommunicative supervisors -constant schedule changes -expectation to work unpaid hours for lesson planning. -children being in classrooms that are unsafe.
