Creating Safe Churches

Safe Church Resources:

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 at cblack@diosova.org 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.

Safe Church (child) training on November 5 at St. Andrew’s, Norfolk.

St. Andrew’s in Norfolk will be hosting a (live) Child Safe Church Training on November 5, 2009 from 6 until 9 p.m.  Dinner will not be served so eat before you come!

Our Safe Church Training course is designed to keep our children safe and to better understand what is and is not appropriate.  If you work with youth, are a parish employee, or serve on a board or committee of the diocese and haven’t taken Safe Church Training in the last three years, you should plan on attending this event or go to the diocese’s online course offering.

There is no registration deadline but registration is required.  For those interested in registration please contact Caroline Black at cblack@diosova.org.

For interested parties for online training, log in and password to access this training is necessary.  Contact Caroline Black at  cblack@diosova.org with full name, email address, phone number and parish.

Policy Manuals & Rescources
Download Safe Churches for Children Policies
Download 2008_adult_safe_church_handbook.pdf
Download safe_church_bulletin_insert.pdf

Safeguarding Online
The following four courses meet the requirements for “Creating Safe Churches for Children” in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia.

Each section takes aproximately 30 minutes to complete.  Send an e-mail to safechurchsva@gmail.org to obtain access to online training. In your email include your name, parish, and home phone number. These will be kept private but are necessary for the database.

Meet Sam “Sam molests children. Hear him tell how he gets away with it”.

You will learn:

• The three types of molesters.
• The three things molesters need in order to offend.
• The types of boundaries offenders often violate.

It Happened to Me “Anger. Failing grades. Depression. These are some affects of sexual abuse.” You will learn:

• The long term affects of abuse.
• Which children are vulnerable to abuse.
• Why children don’t tell about abuse.
• What to do if a child tells you about abuse.

Keeping Your Church Safe “God has entrusted church staff with something precious to Him-His children.”

You will learn:

• Give specific actions to keep children safe.
• The importance of keeping a watchful eye.
• What to do in the case of suspicious situations.
• How to respond to inappropriate behavior.

Policies  This course outlines the specific policies in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. To complete this course users read our policies and indicate online that they understand and agree to comply with the policies.

These four segments are equal to the training now offered throughout the diocese, but take about an hour less to complete. While we think the onsite training is important and will continue this is a valuable tool for those who can’t get to an onsite training for any reason.

In addition the courses Keeping Your School Safe and Keeping Your Camp Safe are available for parishes with day schools and camps.