Disqualifying Offenses for Volunteers and Interns

No person may serve as a direct service volunteer or intern with the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center (HCWC) who has ever been convicted of, been on probation for, or received deferred adjudication for any disqualifying offense, or has presently pending any criminal charges of any disqualifying offense before a determination of guilt is made, including any person who is presently on deferred adjudication. Direct service volunteers include those who serve clients or are unsupervised on HCWC property while clients are on the property.

Guidelines for Determining Disqualification

The following offenses are grounds for volunteer disqualification regardless of any extenuating circumstances:

1. Felony crimes against family, sex-related offenses, child-related offenses, murder, theft/robbery/burglary offenses, fraud related offenses and crimes against persons and property.
2. All other offenses not otherwise described above may result in disqualification at the discretion of the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center. Factors considered by HCWC to determine disqualification include the nature and severity of the criminal conduct, the length of time since the offense occurred, the likelihood of rehabilitation (must be evidenced by community standing, employment, and references) and other factors that HCWC may deem appropriate under the circumstances.

Criminal Background Checks must be conducted on all direct service volunteers within 30 days of the beginning of volunteer service and may be repeated annually thereafter.   Each volunteer or intern who is to be screened must complete and sign a Criminal History Records Check Statement, giving approval to HCWC and the Volunteer Center to perform the Criminal Background Check. Criminal background checks are not submitted for applicants under the age of 18 years.

If information from a Criminal Background Checklists one or more of the aforementioned disqualifying offenses, that information will be reviewed by the Volunteer Coordinator, Executive Director and the appropriate staff member to make a determination of that individual’s eligibility to act as a volunteer with the HCWC.  If a prospective volunteer is denied a volunteer position based upon information received from DPS (The Texas Department of Public Safety), and, if upon review of that information the prospective volunteer feels that the information included is wrong or that it is not his or her record, the submission of fingerprints for a fingerprint check will be completed, at the prospective volunteer’s expense, for positive identification unless the prospective volunteer can prove by other means that he or she is not the person on the criminal record.