Resources

For FLL, the best way is to reach out to your child’s school or start one yourself! For FTC and FRC, reach out to your child’s school, look into starting one yourself or see if there is a neighboring school taking students from other schools.

Check out the Team map under our “Registration Resources” to see if there’s a team near you.

Check out our Start a Team pages, or check FIRST Inspires for more start a team information!

https://www.firstinspires.org/

Mentors don’t need to have technical knowledge! Ask the parents on your team, you may be surprised! Do you have someone who is a Project Manager, works at a Bank, does Graphic Design? Skills like these and others are beneficial to teams! You can also check out the FIRST Mentor Network! 

All volunteers are required to register via the FIRST Inspires Volunteer Dashboard. This is a centralized portal for volunteer registration that FIRST programs in all states use.

Utlizing the FIRST volunteer dashboard ensures your personal data is protected, and it ensures student safety.

Prior to volunteering, all volunteers are required to submit a free-of-charge background check via their FIRST Inspires Volunteer Dashboard.

Questions? Visit our Volunteer Pages, or email Volunteer Success & Engagement Manager Mara Kealey with any questions! Marak@firstwa.org.

At FIRST, student safety is always our top priority. All adult volunteers from the United States and Canada must complete the Youth Protection Policy (YPP) which consists of two vital components to support safety: (1) a federal background check and (2) Youth Protection training.

The background check is a free-of-charge screening through the Volunteer Dashboard.

Check out Step 2. of our Volunteer Registration instructions for detailed instructions.

You cannot be assigned to volunteer until you have passed your screening. Please submit your screening a minimum of one week prior to any event you wish to volunteer at.

Your Youth Protection Screening status can be accessed under your profile on the top right of your Volunteer Dashboard.

​U.S. Screening Process Step by Step

Youth Protection Screening Frequently Asked Questions

Regardless of previous background checks, either for your school if you are a teacher or for any other jobs, everyone must complete the FIRST YPP screening.

Completing the FIRST YPP background check ensures FIRST Washington and FIRST Inspires have the necessary data to support your approval to work with minors.

The background check is administerd by a third-party vendor, Sterling Volunteers to ensure all volunteer data is safetly hosted. FIRST Washington is only privy to a “pass” or “failure to pass” indicator on individual volunteers. We do not have access to details of why a volunteer does not pass a background check, as that information is confidential. If you have questions regarding why you did not pass the YPP background check, please reach out to FIRST Inspires national safety team at – safety@firstinspires.org.