Churches & Faith-Based Organisations
Equipping faith leaders and volunteers to safeguard children
Churches play a deeply important role in the lives of children, young people, and families and whānau across Aotearoa. They are places of connection, care, faith, and belonging, often built on strong values of love, service, and protection of the vulnerable.
Because of this, churches are uniquely placed to help ensure that every child, young person, and vulnerable adult is safe, valued, and able to thrive.
The findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-Based Institutions (“Royal Commission”) have highlighted how important it is for all organisations, including churches and faith-based organisations, to continue to strengthen how they protect children and young people. There is now an increased awareness and higher expectations on churches. The Royal Commission has highlighted that, in the area of protection of children and young people, churches have been found wanting, and there is now no excuse for churches not to have the right policies, procedures, and training in place to protect their most vulnerable.
This is not about blame. It’s an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and ensure they aren’t repeated.
Building on strong foundations
Churches already have many of the foundations needed to keep children and young people safe:
Strong values that emphasise care and protection
Close-knit communities
Opportunities for teaching that shapes attitudes and behaviours
Churches are also built on trust and faith, which are powerful strengths, but which also carry the responsibility of:
Encouraging healthy accountability alongside trust
Ensuring no one is beyond reproach when it comes to safety
Supporting a culture where raising concerns is a duty of care
Progress across faith communities
Churches across Aotearoa are already taking positive steps in this space, implementing policies and procedures that weren’t previously available, training their staff and volunteers to recognise signs and indicators of abuse, and seeking advice from agencies who understand the uniqueness of each church or denomination. It’s important that all services within a church involving children or young people (including youth groups, Sunday school groups, creche, camps, onsite and offsite activities) have safe working practices implemented, designed to mitigate risk as much as possible.
Faith-based community organisations
These organisations are often doing some of the most trusted and relationship-driven work with vulnerable communities. Many provide publicly funded or community services while also being grounded in relational, values-driven approaches such as compassion, trust, and pastoral care. They often work closely with tamariki, rangatahi, and whānau experiencing vulnerability, where their faith identity can help build strong, trusted relationships.
The combination of high trust, relational practice and a mixed workforce of professionals and volunteers is a key strength, but also introduces risk if not well supported. Variability in child protection knowledge and confidence, alongside a tendency to rely on relationships or manage concerns internally, can lead to inconsistent responses to child protection issues. For faith-based community organisations, the challenge is in ensuring their mahi is supported by strong, robust safeguarding practices.
A shared responsibility
Churches and faith-based organisations must actively confront the risk facing the vulnerable in their congregations and communities, rather than shying away. The ethos of trust and forgiveness do not absolve the responsibility to protect the vulnerable in Aotearoa.
Child Matters is here to help
Child Matters provides end-to-end support for churches and faith-based organisations. Child protection training equips staff and volunteers with practical knowledge in recognising signs of abuse or neglect, and the skills to respond confidently and effectively.
We can also support churches and organisations through incident reviews or investigations, undertake audits of child protection procedures, and assist with developing and implementing child protection frameworks and policies. Additionally, our team of child protection experts can provide free advice when guidance may be needed for a child protection incident.
WEBINAR: Child Protection in Faith-Based Organisations
This impactful 2-hour webinar is designed to raise awareness and deepen understanding of child protection issues specific to churches and faith-based organisations in Aotearoa. Participants will gain essential knowledge and practical guidance to help safeguard children and respond appropriately to concerns.
“We (Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand) were looking for a professional, well respected, leader in their field organisation to assist us in auditing our current policies, practices, and compliance related to child protection across all our churches.
We chose Child Matters. From our initial conversations we could not have been more pleased. They took time to listen, understand, asked questions to gain insights and knowledge, and provided a draft scope – refined and continued to ensure what we were looking for and what was delivered were aligned.
We felt valued and respected at every step of the way. There was a level of care in the process that was outstanding. This is a serious and vitally important area. Child Matters lives and breathes this; their passion and desire is clear.”
- Wayne Matheson, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
