A Lansing-based non-profit organization will begin doing background checks on its volunteers.
Listening Ear is a non-profit organization that supports sexual assault survivors among other groups.
Carly Geraci is the organization's media liaison and she says this change in philosophy hasn't been easy.
Geraci says, "For 47 years, we did not require background checks, and that was because we were tying to go for a judgement free, non-discriminatory environment."
"We did not feel that it was necessary to have background checks," Geraci adds, "for all those years, until obviously recently, when a lot of concerns from the community volunteers were brought up."
It was recently discovered that three volunteers at Listening Ear were on the sexual offenders list.
Geraci says the clients come first, so making sure they are comfortable is paramount.
