Protecting Our Children
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Welcome to Protecting Our Children. We are parents, educators,
and child advocates providing a forum for sharing resources that
help the Catholic Community - lay men and women, priests, and bishops
- keep our children safe. Our web page includes a mission statement,
a selected bibliography, links to resources for Parents, Teachers,
and Children. If you are interested in volunteering to protect
children in your local parish and/or diocese contact protectchildwg@votf.org.
Mission Statement: The POC mission is to keep children
safe from sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The obligation
for all Christians to protect children flows from the ministry
and example of Jesus Christ.
05/24/06 - Letter to Sean
Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap
Our goals are:
- to increase awareness among the laity of child
sexual abuse (PDF)
- to identify and promote effective education and prevention programs
- to monitor child protection policies within the Church.
Parish Safety Committee Motion
VOTF and its members will work for the formation of Parish Safety
Committees (PSCs) in every parish. PSCs will actively support
the formation and activities of Child Abuse Prevention (CAP)
teams in each parish. CAP activities should include:
-
Prevention education conducted annually for all children, parents,
staff, lectors, Eucharistic ministers and volunteers.
- Ensure yearly criminal offender record information checks on all
clergy, staff, ministers, and volunteers
PSCs will work to ensure zero tolerance for sexual abuse by
obtaining and disseminating information concerning past assignments
of
all new pastoral personnel.
Samples of Parish Safe Environment Programs: (Adobe
Reader needed)
Protecting Our Children Action Initiatives
Action POC-1: Work with Your Diocese to
Establish
a “Safe Environment” Program
The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops recently issued its Charter for
the Protection of Children and Young People
(available on the Office
of Youth and Child Advocacy website).
The Charter mandates that all dioceses in
the United States will establish “Safe
Environment” programs.
These Safe Environment programs include
programs that train parish adults to identify
and prevent child abuse as well as training
programs for children and young people that
feature age-appropriate materials pertaining
to personal safety, identifying improper
touching, and explaining when a child or
young person should seek assistance from
trusted adults.
In Massachusetts, an independent body — The
Gavin Group of Boston, Massachusetts — has
completed audits of the parishes in the
diocese and VOTF will monitor this process
carefully to ensure that all dioceses comply
with the Bishops Charter and implement the
selected programs for the protection of
children in parishes.
Action POC-2: Work to Ensure That Your Parish
Is Safe
Your affiliate should insist that all employees,
ministers, and volunteers of a parish who
are in contact with children have annual
criminal background checks (e.g., CORI).
Then monitor compliance with this policy.
Promote awareness of seminars, workshops,
and panel discussions that address Protecting
Our Children for adults and children.
One parish council has adopted a Code of
Conduct for all employees and volunteers
and has created a Safety Committee and a
Staffing Committee, essentially adopting
the “Christian Stewardship of God’s
Children” document created by a VOTF
affiliate.
Also ask the diocese to make the VIRTUS
program (called Protecting God’s Children)
or a similar program available to all parishes.
(VIRTUS is sold to dioceses, not to individual
parishes.)
Action POC-3: Cooperate with Other Organizations
That Focus
on Preventing Child Abuse
Cooperating and collaborating with longstanding
child advocacy groups helps educate and
activate communities, including our parish
communities. In Massachusetts, POC is
a member of the Massachusetts Child Sexual
Abuse Prevention Partnership (MCSAPP),
a public/private collaborative whose mission
is to prevent child sexual abuse by engaging
adults and communities in effective perpetration
prevention efforts at the local and state
levels. Their
web site gives
more details about this excellent work.
The MCSAPP partnership has conducted two
conferences on this important work.
For information on the latest, click
here.
Suggestions for Difficult Conversations
with Children
Suggestions for Difficult Conversations with Children
Prepared by and Presented with Permission from the Family Institute
of Cambridge
- Invite your children
to talk about difficult matters, even if this makes you uncomfortable.
- Create a safe space
for conversation.
- Confidentiality -
"This is a private conversation."
- Feelings are welcome
- "However you feel is ok."
- Value multiple perspectives.
Be ready to tolerate statements like, "I hate you," "Fr. Fred
is weird," or "I wish I were dead."
- Normalize difficult
conversations. Don't make difficult conversation a once in a lifetime
conversation. Talk about these things often and in a variety of
ways.
- Talk about talking
about it. Talk about why particular subjects are difficult to
talk about and what can be done to make a conversation easier
for all parties.
- Don't be mysterious
- Be transparent. Be sure to explain why these conversations are
important.
- Listen for meaning,
not for facts.
- Be curious. Listen
for the unusual.
- Helpful barometers
or indications that your child might be in trouble include depression,
anxiety, sleep difficulty, aggressive behavior, drug or alcohol
abuse, sexual promiscuity, avoidance of all things sexual, refusal
to go to school, fascination with fire, or suicidal statements.
If your child exhibits any of these behaviors it is essential
that you work to understand the meaning of the behaviors, directly
with your child and with professional help.
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