New Providence Recreation: Background Checks Required for All Volunteer Coaches

One of New Providence Recreation Department’s goals is to have residents participate in a safe and positive environment. Recreation has taken another step to ensure the safety of children in its programs by contracting with an industry-leading consumer reporting agency, National Security Assurance, LLC (NSA), to run background checks on all Recreation volunteer coaches. 

Recreation is partnering with New Providence PAL (NPPAL) and the New Providence Soccer Club (NPSC) in this endeavor.  Recreation will roll out background checks of its coaches for the upcoming basketball season.  NPPAL and NPSC will require background checks with subsequent program registrations, which will be announced at later dates.

NSA provides a simple online process for background checks. After registering to coach through Recreation’s online registration system, candidates will be provided with a link to NSA’s web page and to the Borough’s background checking policy, which includes a list of disqualifying offenses.  The policy is available on Recreation’s website (www.newprov.org/recreation).  The screening process is completed online in a matter of hours, and Recreation is informed of the pass/fail status.  Candidates with adverse results will have the opportunity to dispute the data in the case of an error on their record and appeal to a panel. Surrounding towns have implemented a similar process with NSA.

The Summit Area Public Foundation generously awarded a grant to New Providence Recreation to cover the costs associated with running background checks for approximately 400 coaches. This is expected to cover the entire first year of the program. 

Registration for Recreation Basketball for grades 1-8 and coaches begins on Wednesday, Sept. 14. Visit www.newprov.org/recreation for more information about the program. 

Recreation, NP PAL and the NPSC expect a smooth transition to this process, which will provide further assurance that our programs are safe.