Rules for Volunteering, Mentorship & Participation

G.O.T. ORCHARDS

Program Rules & Safety

Safe participation begins with respect, clear boundaries, responsible behavior, appropriate supervision, and shared responsibility. These public standards help create a welcoming, inclusive, and accountable environment for teens of all abilities, seniors, mentors, volunteers, families, staff, contractors, and approved guests participating in G.O.T. Orchards programs and activities.

Rules at a Glance

Every person helps protect dignity, trust, and safety.

Respect Every Person

Treat yourself and others with dignity. Respect personal boundaries, appropriate names, accessibility needs, abilities, cultures, communication preferences, backgrounds, and individual differences.

Follow Safety Procedures

Remain within approved activity areas, use gardening tools and equipment only as instructed, follow supervision requirements, and comply with applicable check-in, checkout, and release procedures.

Speak Up About Safety

Promptly report injuries, hazards, bullying, threats, suspected abuse or neglect, sexual misconduct, boundary violations, or other serious safety concerns.
Before participation: Participants under age 18 must have required parent or legal guardian authorization. Adults serving in applicable teen-facing roles must complete the screening, orientation, training, approval, and supervision requirements applicable to their role.

Respectful Conduct, Language & Personal Responsibility

Every person shares responsibility for the environment we create.

Participants, mentors, volunteers, staff, contractors, participating parents or legal guardians, and approved guests are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that supports dignity, safety, inclusion, personal responsibility, and mutual respect. Children and teens learn not only from what they are taught, but also from the words, behaviors, attitudes, and examples they see and hear from those around them. Adults participating in G.O.T. Orchards activities therefore have an increased responsibility to model respectful language, healthy boundaries, patience, cooperation, and responsible behavior.

Respect Yourself & Others

  • Treat yourself and others with dignity.
  • Use respectful and age-appropriate language.
  • Demonstrate patience, kindness, and cooperation.
  • Respect personal and accessibility boundaries.
  • Take responsibility for your own words and actions.

Respect Names

  • Address people respectfully by their appropriate or preferred names.
  • Name-calling, insulting labels, mocking names, and intentionally disrespectful nicknames are prohibited.
  • Deliberately calling a person by a name they have asked not to be called is prohibited.
  • A person’s name or personal characteristics must not be used to ridicule, embarrass, intimidate, or demean.

Appropriate Language & Behavior

  • Communicate respectfully during disagreements.
  • Degrading, abusive, sexually inappropriate, threatening, or humiliating language is prohibited.
  • Bullying, harassment, intimidation, discrimination, hazing, stalking, coercion, and retaliation are prohibited.
  • Violence, aggressive behavior, and deliberately unsafe conduct are prohibited.

Adults Must Model Appropriate Conduct

  • Model respectful communication.
  • Use age-appropriate language around minors.
  • Demonstrate patience and responsible conflict resolution.
  • Maintain appropriate adult-minor boundaries.
  • Model the behavior expected from participants.
The example we set matters: Respectful words, responsible behavior, appropriate boundaries, and positive interactions help create a setting where teens, seniors, and adults can safely learn from one another, contribute, and grow together.

Gardening Tools, Equipment & Activity Safety

Safe gardening requires instruction, supervision, assistance, and responsible tool use.

G.O.T. Orchards takes reasonable steps to maintain safety throughout gardening, orchard, educational, creative, and community activities. Participants must receive appropriate instruction before using gardening tools or equipment. Teen participants must use tools and equipment only as authorized and with appropriate adult supervision and assistance based on the activity, tool, participant’s age, experience, ability, and individual accessibility or safety needs.

Safe Tool Use

  • Use tools only for their intended purpose.
  • Follow program-leader safety instructions.
  • Use protective equipment when required.
  • Maintain appropriate distance from others.
  • No running or horseplay while using tools.
  • Return tools to designated areas after use.

Supervision & Assistance

  • Teen tool use requires appropriate adult supervision.
  • Participants should ask for assistance when unsure how to safely complete an activity.
  • Adaptive tools and reasonable assistance may be provided when appropriate.
  • Damaged or unsafe tools must be reported and removed from use.
  • Participants should stop an activity when continuing presents an unreasonable safety concern.
Safety and accessibility: No participant should be pressured to perform an activity that cannot be completed safely within the participant’s abilities or with appropriate support or accommodation.

Child Safety, Sexual Misconduct & Adult Boundaries

The protection of children is a mandatory organizational priority.

G.O.T. Orchards strictly prohibits sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation, grooming, sexual harassment, sexualized communication, romantic or sexual relationships, inappropriate touching, coercion, or any other sexually inappropriate conduct between an adult serving in or connected with G.O.T. Orchards and a minor participant. Adults are solely responsible for maintaining appropriate professional and personal boundaries with minors. A minor’s participation, affection, communication, perceived consent, or willingness to interact does not authorize an adult to violate G.O.T. Orchards youth-safety requirements. Parent or legal guardian permission does not override G.O.T. Orchards safeguarding requirements.

Supervision

  • Use approved, open, and observable spaces.
  • Avoid isolated one-to-one contact between an adult and a minor.
  • Follow established supervision requirements.
  • Do not arrange unauthorized private meetings with minors.
  • Never encourage a minor to conceal a safety concern.

Communication

  • Use approved program communication channels.
  • Include a parent, legal guardian, or designated organizational account when required.
  • Secret or concealed communication with minors is prohibited.
  • Sexual, romantic, exploitative, or otherwise inappropriate communication is prohibited.

Conduct Strictly Prohibited With Minors

Any conduct that threatens a minor’s safety, dignity, or personal boundaries is never acceptable.

The following conduct is strictly prohibited:

  • Sexual or romantic conduct between an adult and a minor.
  • Sexual touching or inappropriate physical contact.
  • Sexual comments, jokes, propositions, or sexually suggestive conduct involving a minor.
  • Grooming or attempts to create secret, dependent, manipulative, or exploitative relationships.
  • Requesting, sending, displaying, or sharing sexual images, messages, videos, or other sexual content with a minor.
  • Secret or concealed communication with a minor.
  • Disappearing messages or unauthorized private social-media communication with minors.
  • Asking a minor to conceal an adult’s communication, conduct, gift, meeting, or relationship.
  • Coercion, intimidation, exploitation, or retaliation.
  • Unauthorized isolated adult-minor contact or private meetings.
  • Grooming-related favoritism, inappropriate gifts, or personal loans intended to create dependency or secrecy.
  • Any attempt to conceal, discourage, interfere with, suppress, or retaliate against a good-faith child-safety report.
No person is exempt: Title, position, employment status, volunteer role, leadership role, reputation, relationship, or connection to G.O.T. Orchards does not exempt anyone from these youth-safety requirements.

Teen Participant Rules

Participate safely, respectfully, and with support.

  • Follow reasonable program safety instructions.
  • Remain within approved program areas.
  • Use respectful and age-appropriate language.
  • Respect other participants’ bodies, belongings, cultures, ideas, accessibility needs, and creative work.
  • Follow gardening-tool and equipment safety requirements.
  • Do not publicly disclose another participant’s private or identifying information.
  • Do not photograph, record, post, tag, or publicly identify another participant without appropriate permission.
  • Tell a trusted adult or designated program leader if something feels unsafe, threatening, secretive, confusing, sexually inappropriate, or concerning.
  • Follow applicable check-in and checkout procedures.

Mentor, Volunteer & Adult Responsibilities

Adults must remain within their approved roles and maintain appropriate boundaries.

Complete Approval Requirements

Adults serving in applicable teen-facing roles must complete required screening, orientation, training, role approval, and supervision requirements before beginning their assignment.

Maintain Role Boundaries

Mentors, volunteers, staff, and contractors must remain within their assigned roles and must not independently provide unauthorized medical, legal, financial, mental-health, personal-care, transportation, or other professional services to participants through G.O.T. Orchards programming.

Report Serious Concerns

Promptly report injuries, missing participants, threats, suspected abuse or neglect, sexual misconduct, boundary violations, unsafe conditions, or other serious safety concerns. Do not promise secrecy, conduct an unauthorized investigation, or independently confront a suspected offender.

Transportation, Arrival, Pickup & Release

G.O.T. Orchards does not provide transportation or rides.

Transportation Responsibility

G.O.T. Orchards does not provide, operate, coordinate, or arrange transportation to or from programs, events, meetings, partner locations, or other activities. Participants and, when applicable, parents or legal guardians are responsible for making their own transportation arrangements.

Personal Vehicles

Staff, mentors, volunteers, and contractors are not authorized to transport participants in personal vehicles as part of G.O.T. Orchards programming. G.O.T. Orchards does not arrange informal participant rides.

Arrival & Release

Participants must follow applicable check-in, checkout, pickup, and release procedures. Parents or legal guardians are responsible for providing required authorized-pickup or release information for participants under age 18.
Emergency situations: Personal transportation by staff, mentors, volunteers, or contractors is not a substitute for appropriate emergency medical response.

Medication, Health & Medical Emergencies

G.O.T. Orchards does not administer medication.

G.O.T. Orchards staff, mentors, and volunteers do not store, dispense, or administer medication as part of program services. If a minor may need medication during an activity, a parent or legal guardian must remain present, keep control of the medication, and administer it when needed. Adult participants are responsible for carrying and self-administering their own medication when able to do so, or for arranging their own support person. Medication and health information should be shared privately only when needed to support safe participation. This policy does not limit emergency responders or assistance provided within a person’s training and as permitted by law.

Photos, Media, Online Participation & Privacy

Consent, privacy, and individual choices must be respected.

Photos, Recording & Online Content

  • Photography and recording during program activities must follow G.O.T. Orchards procedures.
  • Required permission must be obtained before G.O.T. Orchards publishes a minor’s identifiable image, voice, story, artwork, poetry, or other creative work when consent is required.
  • Participants, mentors, volunteers, and staff must not improperly post identifiable participant information or program images.

Privacy & Personal Information

  • Protect addresses and precise locations.
  • Protect school and schedule information.
  • Protect phone numbers and email addresses.
  • Protect health and disability information.
  • Protect family circumstances and private stories.
  • Protect passwords and account information.
Safety is not a secret: Privacy and confidentiality expectations do not prevent anyone from reporting suspected abuse or neglect, sexual misconduct, threats, emergencies, or other legitimate safety concerns.

Reporting, Child Protection & Legal Compliance

Child-safety concerns must be reported promptly and taken seriously.

G.O.T. Orchards will comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, legally required reporting duties, safeguarding requirements, and lawful directives relating to child safety, abuse, neglect, sexual misconduct, exploitation, and the protection and welfare of minors.
Legally required reporting: An internal report to G.O.T. Orchards does not replace an individual’s duty to make a report directly to the appropriate public authority when reporting is required by law.
No delay or interference: No staff member, mentor, volunteer, contractor, participant, parent, legal guardian, board member, organizational leader, partner, or other person may suppress, conceal, discourage, interfere with, or improperly delay a legally required child-safety report.
Serious boundary or sexual-safety concerns: Allegations involving abuse, exploitation, grooming, sexual misconduct, inappropriate adult-minor conduct, serious boundary violations, violence, threats, or other conduct that may endanger a child will be addressed promptly. G.O.T. Orchards may immediately restrict or remove an individual from contact with minors and from applicable program duties while appropriate protective, reporting, and lawful review processes proceed.
Cooperation with authorities: G.O.T. Orchards will cooperate with lawful child-protection, emergency-response, regulatory, and law-enforcement processes, as applicable.
No retaliation: Retaliation against a person who makes a good-faith safety report, refuses unsafe conduct, seeks emergency assistance, participates in a lawful investigation, or makes a legally required report is prohibited.

Violations, Enforcement & Acknowledgment

Safety violations may require immediate protective action.

Depending on the nature and seriousness of a concern, G.O.T. Orchards may take reasonable action to protect participants, volunteers, staff, partner sites, and program operations.
  • Pause, modify, or end an activity.
  • Adjust or increase supervision.
  • Separate an individual from participants.
  • Immediately restrict youth-facing responsibilities when a serious safety concern arises.
  • Contact a parent or legal guardian.
  • Contact a host or partner organization.
  • Require additional training or corrective action.
  • Restrict program responsibilities.
  • Suspend participation, duties, or placement.
  • End a participant, mentor, volunteer, contractor, or staff role when appropriate.
  • Preserve relevant records.
  • Seek emergency assistance.
  • Contact child-protection authorities, law enforcement, regulators, or other appropriate public authorities when required or appropriate.
Immediate protective action may be taken before an internal review is completed when reasonably necessary to protect a participant or address a serious safety concern.

Our Commitment to Child Safety

The safety and dignity of children take priority over an individual’s position, title, relationship, reputation, volunteer status, employment status, leadership role, or connection to G.O.T. Orchards. No person is exempt from these requirements.
Growing Safely Together: G.O.T. Orchards is committed to creating welcoming opportunities where teens of all abilities and seniors can learn, contribute, build relationships, and connect with nature while respecting dignity, accessibility, appropriate boundaries, and community safety.

These public Program Rules & Safety standards may be revised as programs develop, partnerships change, or applicable legal, safeguarding, accessibility, health, and safety requirements are updated.

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