We’d recommend spacing students out in smaller vehicles if possible. Also consider keeping the windows down for airflow, and have students wear masks. Since you’ll form crews before leave for your trip, you could also start the ‘crew bubble’ early and keep students in their crew vehicles on the way to the trip – no mixing allowed. At the very least, this keeps people separated. Lastly, while this may not be possible for everyone, many churches are choosing to book trips that are closer to home to have a shorter time in the van.  

We will still have the same number of staff on each of our sites. Staff will be trained to maintain social distance from participants whenever possible. In doing so, staff will be less likely to contract and/or spread COVID-19 between participating groups. 

Footwashing will still happen on Thursday Evenings, however this will happen in church groups instead of one large room. We will offer alternate activities if groups choose not to do footwashing. 

We acknowledge our COVID protocols will take extra time during the day. We intend to build our schedules around this reality. 

For the service day, we will have meaningful backup partnerships and activities that can be done safely indoors. While our ideal is to have most activities outside, if possible, (free time, meals, The Gathering, Devotions, Church Group Time), there will always be indoor backup options that fit within our safety parameters. 

If it is necessary for YouthWorks to close a mission site due to the regional spread of COVID-19 (only impacting a few of our sites), groups will be transferred to another site if space is available. If alternative space is not available or the site is not within a feasible travel distance and registration has not been previously cancelled by the church or organization, we will do everything possible to extend refunds and/or credits to church or organizations registered for the closed site.  

If a church or organization has needs to cancel their trip after the May 3 deadline, please reach out to our Customer Engagement Team (servicecenter@youthworks.com) and we’ll walk you through our process of filling out a special request. Our intention is to do everything possible to support you in these unlikely situations.  

To the extent possible, we are prioritizing outdoor options for meals, worship and service sites.  We know that the virus spreads much less readily in the great outdoors. 

We’re planning to develop a system to easily identify who is a part of which crew while on-site (likely a colored wristband). During Sunday orientation, we will lay out expectations to all participants around what safe interactions between crews looks like. 

We will evaluate the situation based on specific symptoms, the nature of close contact the symptomatic individual had with others and how quickly the symptomatic individual can get a COVID test result. If we determine there is significant risk to the larger group, it is possible that more participants may need to go home if they have been in close contact with the sick person. We request that any participant that goes home gets tested for COVID-19 and reports any positive results to YouthWorks. 

Churches and/or parents/guardians should be prepared to cover the cost of any transportation or quarantine situation that arises. Our participant release form has a “transport home” agreement where parents/guardians acknowledge that they may need to drive to the YouthWorks site to pick up their child. Unfortunately, YouthWorks cannot provide an extended quarantine area for sick participants. 

First, let’s pray for a vaccine! We will monitor the progress of a vaccine and use recommendations from the CDC and local and state laws on how to proceed.  

This just happened! Our sister organization, Border Perspective, just ran a trip last week with these protocols and will have three more trips leading up to the summer. It was very successful, and we will continue to grow and learn as we go!