Protecting Our Children Supper Meeting.
Tuesday, 9/16, at 6:30 p.m.,
Parish Center of Our Lady's Church,
West Concord

Jetta Bernier, of MA Citizens for Children and the MCSPPartnership, joins us for our first meeting outside of Newton, our first "Field" meeting. Jetta will announce the three pilot sites selected by the Partnership, describe their commitment to develop community-wide programs for prevention of child sexual abuse, and outline plans for evaluating the programs.

For the information and communication purposes of the POC Working Group, the Partnership program connects with the publication of "Christian Stewardship of Children in the Catholic Community," by the Protection of Children Committee of the Concord Area VOTF, and of "Safe Environment Policies and Procedures," by St. Zepherin Parish of Wayland, both of which are now available at the POC link on the VOTF web site. An exchange should be fruitful all around.

Another initiative of the Partnership may also fit into the exchange. Responding jointly to a proposal that the religious component of the Partnership be broadened, David Crane of VOTF:POC and Bob Kelly from Deacon Rizzuto's office committed to taking an active role in forming this group.

Virginia Gill is ordering supper to be delivered by 6:30. We will all chip in to pay the bill. Our West Concord hosts will provide dessert and coffee.

We hope you are able to join us. If you plan to come, please either send me an e-mail or call me at 617-527-1505 so we have some sense of the number to order for. Here are the direction to Our Lady's.
Mary

Directions to Our Lady's Church in West Concord

Take Route 128/95 to the Lexington/Waltham area, Exit 29B (Route 2 West)

Follow Route 2 through one traffic light. As you approach the next light, prepare to make a left-hand turn, staying on Route 2 (All the traffic uses the two left-most lanes to turn left.) Take the left to stay on Route 2 West, and follow Route 2 through several traffic lights.

As you pass Emerson Hospital, get in the left lane. At the traffic light after the hospital, turn left onto Route 62 (Main Street). The sign will read West Concord/Maynard.

Follow Route 62 for about 0.7 of a mile, until you come to a traffic light in front of the Ninety-Nine Restaurant. Go left at this light to stay on Route 62.

At the next light, take a right onto Church Street. Take your first right into Out Lady's parking lot. The Parish Center is behind the church.

For five months our core group has met on Tuesday evenings, at the same time and place as other VOTF working groups. First, we planned the presentations and handouts for our sessions at the July 20th VOTF Conference. Our speakers, Jetta Bernier and Tim Nichols, provided leads to the functions on which we now focus: (1) finding and helping to establish child sexual abuse prevention programs and (2) sharing with Parish Religious Education Programs, with parents, and with other care givers, the resources, including speakers, that we have researched and that have been recommended to us. For the overall direction of our activities, see our Mission Statement and Goals on this web site.

The VOTF Board of Trustees unanimously accepted (9/16) our proposal to join a group of state and private agencies, the Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Partnership, with the focus on prevention. As plans move forward for a 2-day conference involving parents, teachers, and other professionals working with children, we will be active participants. The projected date for the conference is early in 2003.

Over these months we have emailed notes on our meetings to 30 or so participants in the 7/20 conference. Now that we have a link on the VOTF web site, our activities will be reported here. The Related Events section will continue to list lectures and other programs.

At our 12/3 meeting, moved to Our Lady's because of a flooding problem at St. John's, we were stunned and saddened at the newly disclosed abuses by priests. Our resolve - fortified by a warm expression of gratitude from David Clohessy, President of SNAP, and a clear-sighted report by Jim Post on the leadership's meeting with Cardinal Law - continues to be the increase of membership and resources to achieve our goals. David Crane and Marilyn Donlan will represent us at the 12/5 meeting of the MCSAPP. They shared with us a number of preparatory documents for the meeting.