Background Checks

Designed to increase transparency — not guarantee safety.

“In God we trust; all others must bring data.”
W. Edwards Deming

Sterling, a First Advantage Company, Does the Checking

Help Handed partners with Sterling, a First Advantage company, to provide background checks for members on our platform. These checks are purchased directly through Sterling and, for certain types of help, must be completed in order to volunteer. Sterling conducts the screening, and we display a simple “pass” status on a member’s profile for each check completed. If a member does not receive a cleared result on a required criminal check, their access to the platform will be removed.

For motor vehicle record (MVR) checks, a non-pass result will not be displayed on the member’s profile, but it will restrict a member from volunteering for help requests that involve transporting others.

Important Note

Background checks can provide useful information about a volunteer’s history, but they have important limitations. Results are based on records from third-party sources and may not be complete, accurate, or up to date. A background check does not guarantee someone’s identity, character, or future behavior. It should be considered one part of your overall evaluation, alongside your own judgment and any other information available.

Available Background Checks

There are two options for criminal checks and a motor vehicle records check that can be added to your Help Handed profile. A criminal check is frequently required to volunteer for private, in-person help, and the MVR check is required for transportation of other members.

Advanced Criminal History Locator Search

$14.00

SSN trace
50 state DOJ sex offender search
OFAC watchlist search
Validated nationwide criminal search
Current county of residence search
Monthly nationwide updating

Complete Criminal History Locator Search

$32.00

Everything in the Advanced Criminal Search, plus…
Seven year address history trace
Validated arrest direct Search
Alias and maiden name Searches

Motor Vehicle Record Check

$5.00

A Motor Vehicle Record Check contains state driving record information dating back at least 3 years, and possibly further back, depending on the jurisdiction. The information found consists of the current status of license as well as any history of speeding, reckless driving, careless driving, driving under the influence, driving while intoxicated, etc. The dates of all incidents are found in these abstracts along with all suspensions with dates and causes of said suspensions.

Primary Sources

50 State DOJ Sex Offender Search

The 50 state DOJ registered sex offender search checks the federal Department of Justice database which includes the listing of registered sex offenders for all 50 States – except Nevada, which currently has an injunction in place.

OFAC Watchlist Search

The Government Watch List Search identifies individuals and companies, owned, controlled by, or acting on behalf of countries targeted by US foreign policy as terrorists and narcotics traffickers. These individuals are identified as Specially Designated Nationals (“SDN”). The SDN search is conducted using documentation provided by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”).

State and County Jurisdictions

State and county jurisdictions identified during the locator process are searched at the related courthouse. Many searches are conducted using Sterling’s proprietary CourtDirect technology which electronically accesses court documents while others require court runners to physically visit a courthouse to search and collect information. All courts are searched back as far as information is available and once information is received, Sterling Volunteers has a fully staffed Quality Control (QC) team that reviews all criminal information found at the court and matches it up to the information provided by the Volunteer. In order to report a record, our QC team requires at least 2 identifiers match information contained in the record. (These identifiers can be a combination of any 2 of the following: full name match, full address, Date of Birth and Social Security Number). The QC process also applies federal and state level FCRA reporting guidelines which dictate the type of information that can be reported and whether criminal history may be reported past 7 years.

Sterling Advantages

More than a one-time check—Sterling provides ongoing updates and the option to share your reports with other organizations.

Monthly Updates

Included in the Criminal History Locator packages are monthly updates. Each month, a volunteer is re-screened using the nationwide criminal locator process. Results of the nationwide search are compared to those of prior searches and if differences are identified, a new jurisdictional search will be conducted at the primary source. All background reports are updated each month to indicate when the update was run and results of each. If new criminal history has been identified, Sterling alerts us immediately and member profiles are updated accordingly.

Buy Once, Share Many

Since Help Handed members own a copy of their up-to-date background check in their own online Sterling account, they can compliantly share existing background checks with other organizations using Sterling’s services at no extra charge.

Also, if you’ve already acquired a background check through Sterling due to other volunteering activity, you can simply share it with Help Handed. No need to pay for a new report.

Visit your Sterling account to share your existing background check reports.