Safeguarding God’s Children

Safeguarding God’s Children, our training program for the prevention of sexual abuse of children and youth, provides participants the information they need to protect the children they know and care for in their personal lives and in the ministries in which they serve.  This program has been in effect for a few years and some of us are getting careless in our training requirements for staff and volunteers. We need to continue to pay close attention to see that all those who need training receive it.  The training for those who work with children is available online and is required for all adults who work with children and youth in a parish or diocesan setting.  It is easy for us to overlook this requirement or resist “requiring” anything more of our volunteers, so if this has been the case, I urge everyone to poll your staff and volunteers to see who still needs training and reminding them of the requirement and of the two options available.  The online option takes a little more than an hour and (let’s be honest) everyone has time for that.  Despite its convenience, however, the online experience is not the same as a live presentation and we encourage parishes to offer opportunities for follow-up conversations with staff and volunteers after they have taken the online training.  These conversations can be part of regularly scheduled meetings and go a long way in keeping adults aware.  In addition, we will be offering live Safe Church Trainings every other month beginning in January. The schedule will be published on the website by Advent I. If you would like to host one of these trainings, please contact Caroline Black, cblack600@gmail.com to sign up your staff for training.  These trainings sometimes are not easy or convenient but they are essential if we are to assure our congregations that our parishes are safe places for children and youth and that we as a faith community take our responsibilities seriously.