Copy of Sharing Faith Initiative’s Media Release Form - Adult
Dear Ministers and Church Leaders,
Thank you for your consideration in participating in the Children’s Sermons by Children program, part of the Sharing Faith Initiative from Austin Seminary. The following pages contain the Permission to Record and Media Use Form for adults involved with the program. We hope that the opportunity to interview ministers about their current work with children will provide much-desired insight, as well as lead to fruitful conversations for the participants in our program.
Our plan is to record conversations with children’s ministers, senior pastors, and children in a congregation. The videos will be shared only in ways indicated within this permission form. Content control will be maintained by our program at all times. The video footage will be used to show evidence of children as faith-sharers and will be part of ongoing conversations between us and participating churches about how children experience worship and learn about God, as well as their capacity for sharing their faith with others.
Please know that your safety is our utmost concern. To that affect, we have established the following protocols for the collection of interviews:
Participants will be assigned a number code at the time of the interview.
Names will only be on the written permission forms, unless permitted to use with video. The original signed forms will be kept in a locked office.
The Sharing Faith Initiative staff will keep a comprehensive spreadsheet of permissions granted for all participants using the assigned number codes which will help us keep track of the level of permission for sharing data collected.
The baseline for sharing the interviews will be to omit sharing name and age, unless otherwise permitted in the following permission form.
We will send a copy of this signed agreement to the email indicated on this form.
The videos will be edited by the Sharing Faith Initiative team and will be stored on a password protected website. The videos will not be kept on any individual computers or recording devices following their upload to the site. The videos will be deleted from the site on or before March 31, 2030, the date of when the final report for the Children’s Sermons by Children grant is due.
If we want to use the video or photographs in a capacity beyond the scope laid out in this consent form, you will be contacted for further permission.
Please let us know if you have any questions— full contact details are at the end.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Dr. Carolyn Helsel, Project Director
Amanda Herridge, Associate Director
Kelley DeCleene, Program Coordinator
Email: sharingfaith@austinseminary.edu
PERMISSION TO RECORD AND MEDIA USE FORM – Adult
Your Name: ____________________________________________________ Date: _________________
Current Role at Church: _________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________
Phone Number: _________________________________________________
Email Address: __________________________________________________ (to send copy of consent)
1. Permission to Record and Privacy Settings: I, the undersigned, hereby give permission to be interviewed and recorded on camera by the Sharing Faith Initiative team working on the Children’s Sermons by Children (CSbC) program. The collected data will help us learn how children experience worship and learn about God, as well as their capacity to share their faith with others.
By writing my initials in the space provided, I give permission for recorded footage of myself to be used in the following way (Initial ONE):
______ NO USE: I do not grant permission for the Sharing Faith Initiative team to record me or my likeness.
______ RESEARCH USE ONLY: My interview recording can be used for research purposes only to gather data about children in worship. This use is private - only seen by Sharing Faith Initiative (SFI) Team.
______ SEMI-PRIVATE USE: Examples of this use include: sharing with our grant funder to demonstrate our work, sharing on the project’s website behind a secure, password-protected wall for other churches in the grant program, or sharing with the Austin Seminary community and other churches as examples of the program.
______ PUBLIC USE: For sharing on the website with the general public. This would enable the widest possible audience to learn from the video recordings and to recruit more churches to the grant program.
2. Consent to Share My Image and Voice: If you are willing to share the data collected from our interview with others (Semi-Private or Public permissions, above), please let us know whether you would like any other identifiable information to be shared:
By initialing below, I restrict the right to use my image & video in the following way (Initial ONE):
_____ I do not give permission to share my interview video outside of research purposes.
_____ Permission to share audio only of the interview without my name attached.
_____ Permission to share photographs, video and audio without my name and my face blurred.
_____ Permission to share photographs, video and audio, but without my name listed.
_____ Permission to share photographs, video and audio with First Name, Last Initial, and church role.
3. Consent to use My Words in Writing: Regarding the transcribed words recorded from the interviews, my initials on the lines below indicate (Initial ONE):
_____ Permission to share my words as quotes from interviews, with no images or names but only church role listed, in possible future published writings or on the project website or newsletter.
_____ Permission to share my words as quotes from interviews, with First Name, Last Initial, and church role in written materials on the project website and newsletter.
4. No Compensation: I understand that I will not receive monetary compensation for participation in the interview or for the use of my recorded image and voice.
5. Right to Withdraw Consent: I understand that I may withdraw consent at any time by providing written notice to the Sharing Faith Initiative team at sharingfaith@austinseminary.edu.
6. Privacy and Safety: I acknowledge that the Sharing Faith Initiative team will take reasonable measures to ensure that my privacy and safety are respected. However, I understand that by giving permission for my interview to be recorded there is still a chance my video or image may be seen or heard by a wider audience.
7. Acknowledgement of Understanding: I confirm that I have read and understand the contents of this Permission to Record and Media Use Form. I am signing this form voluntarily and without coercion.
Your Signature: __________________________________________________Date: _________________
Contact Information for Sharing Faith Initiative:
Email: sharingfaith@austinseminary.edu Phone: 512-404-4861
Website: sharingfaith.austinseminary.edu
Project Director: The Rev. Dr. Carolyn B. Helsel,
Associate Professor in the Blair Monie Distinguished Chair of Homiletics and
Program Director, the Sharing Faith Initiative
Sharing Faith Initiative: Children’s Sermons by Children • Faithful Preaching Project
Conducted by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc.