Defining Narratives
Do this one first. It is the most important of the two and it is usually free.
This is the important one. It is the check that gets you through the door of a juvenile facility. Nothing else you do, and nothing we pay for, can stand in for it, and in most places the agency runs it at their own cost, so it usually costs you nothing. It is also the slowest thing in this whole process. Start it this week.
Here is the shape of it before the detail. You go to the agency in person and fill in their volunteer application. They fingerprint you, and most places now have the digital scanners that take a few minutes and lock you straight in. Then you wait, usually one to two weeks, while your prints come back. If you are cleared, they book you onto an orientation at the facility, you go and sit it, and at the end of that you are cleared to volunteer. Then you send us the confirmation. That is the whole thing.
Where you are going: the juvenile justice agency where you will be working. Print this sheet and take it with you. There is a space at the bottom to write down names, dates and numbers, because you will be given several and you will not remember them.
Defining Narratives does not run this check. We do not order it, we are never sent your record, and we do not want it. You go in your own name, you go through their process, and then you show us that you are cleared. That is on purpose: it means your history stays between you and them.
Start the other sheet at the same time. The Checkr check on Protocol 2 takes an afternoon and this one takes weeks. Running them one after the other costs you a month for no reason at all.
We have not yet written down the published process for your state, so the steps below are the shape this takes almost everywhere rather than a list your agency has published. That gap is ours and not yours. Ring them, work through these steps, and tell us what they actually said: we will write it down properly and the next person in your state will get the real thing.
Ring ahead before you make the trip. We have written this down from what we understand and nobody here has had it confirmed by the agency directly, so if any of it turns out to be wrong, tell us and we will fix it for the next person.
One phone call or one email, before you spend a morning on this. Say you want to volunteer with young people in the juvenile justice system, say the name Defining Narratives, and ask three things: is this the right office for where I will be working, what does your volunteer screening involve, and what do I need to bring. Write down the answers. If they send you somewhere else, that is the call doing its job.
We do not have a phone number for the agency where you are. Search for the juvenile probation or juvenile justice office for your county, ring the main line, and ask for whoever handles volunteers. Then send us the number.
Complete the juvenile justice agency where you will be working's own volunteer application. It is their form, not ours, and it is the thing that starts your file with them. Put your name on it exactly as you gave it to us, and be ready to list any other name you have used: a name that does not match is the commonest reason one of these has to be done twice.
This is the step everything else waits on, so book it as early as they will let you. Most places now use a digital scanner that takes a few minutes and submits your prints electronically the same day, which is far quicker than the old ink cards. If they send you to an outside fingerprint vendor rather than doing it themselves, ask the agency for the exact ORI number to give that vendor and get it from the agency in writing. Never take an ORI off a vendor's website: the vendor submits under whatever number you hand them, and a wrong one sends your result to an office that is not expecting it, which means paying and being printed all over again.
Nothing, and that is the hard part. This is the agency's queue and neither you nor we can move it. While you wait, start the second check on the other sheet: the two run at the same time and waiting for one before starting the other costs you weeks for no reason. If you have heard nothing after two weeks, ring them, quote your tracking number, and ask where it is. Polite chasing works.
Once your prints are back and you are cleared, they book you onto an orientation at the facility, and you have to attend it in person. Expect the rules of the building, what you may and may not bring in, what to do if a young person tells you something serious, and training specific to what you will actually be doing. Ask what to wear and what you can carry in, because most facilities are strict about phones and bags.
One question, at the end of your first proper conversation: is there anything else in your process that I have not done yet. We have written down what they publish, and agencies do not always publish everything. Asking takes ten seconds and finding out three weeks late costs a month.
Send us whatever they gave you that says you are cleared to volunteer, plus the reference or badge number and the expiry date if you have them. Do not send us anything containing your criminal history. We do not want it, we are not allowed to hold it, and we will delete it unread if it arrives. A fingerprint receipt or a TCN is not what we need either: that proves you were printed, not that you passed. What we need is the thing they sent afterwards saying you are approved.
None of this is an oversight. These are the things nobody here has confirmed, and we would rather print the gap than print a guess you would drive to. Ask about each one, and tell us what they said: we will put the answer on this sheet for the next person.
They will give you names, dates and numbers. You will not remember them.