Protecting
Our Children
Report from Mary Lanigan
Our
October meetings were back to back. On Tuesday, 10/21,
at St. John’s in Wellesley, we focused (1) on how to
answer questions about the implementation of the VIRTUS
and the Talking About Touching (TAT) programs and (2)
on our role in the Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse
Prevention Partnership. We decided to ask Directors
of Religious Education a few questions about VIRTUS
and TAT that could be answered briefly by phone. (1.
How is your VIRTUS program going? 1a. Has the training
gone well? 1b. Is everyone trained? 2. Do your participants
think the Reporting Policies are clear? 3. Have you
been trained in TAT (Talking About Touching)? 4. Do
you have a Parish Safety Committee?)
Joining
us for the meeting were Gail Sommer and Paula Tarrant,
both of the Newton Child Assault Prevention Program
(CAPP) and both leaders in the newly formed Newton Child
Sexual Abuse Prevention Partnership. The Newton Partnership,
which held an orientation meeting the previous day at
which POC was represented, is one of the three local
collaboratives of the Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse
Prevention Partnership (MCSAPP). The other two are Gloucester
and Orange/Athol in the Quabban region. (For background
on the POC membership in the MCSAPP, and on the pilot
program to develop permanent local collaboratives for
child sexual abuse prevention, go to the POC link on
the VOTF web site and click “Protecting Our Children
Working Group Meeting Notes, 9/16/03.)
The
Newton Partnership has set up three committees, which
share responsibility for outreach: Steering, Public
Education, and Community Organization and Outreach.
As we talked of prevention programs that the Newton
Partnership might use, Gail and Paula told us that through
CAPP they are experienced with TAT and are eager to
be trained in VIRTUS. They noted that CAPP, which is
less specific than TAT, sends trained people into pre-school
through sixth grade classrooms; whereas, TAT instructs
classroom teachers to present its program. Gail, who
chairs NCSAPP steering committee, invited us to continue
sending a representative to Newton Partnership meetings.
On
10/22 we met with Megan Freedman, Project Director for
the MCSAPP, and Sarah Spurgeon, MCSAPP Project Assistant,
to discuss POC’s role preparing for an October 2004
MCSAPP Conference that will feature the three permanent
local collaboratives. POC will work on logistics: (1)
a location central to the three pilot communities (2)
a facility available on a Thursday or Friday in October
and able to accommodate 500 in both general assembly
and break-down sessions (3) transportation for Gloucester,
Newton, and Quabban pilot communities (4) announcements
and recruitment of attendees (5) registration. Help
with these tasks will be gratefully received. At present,
Westford seems the most central location.
For
its 11/18 meeting, POC attended a panel discussion,
“Protecting Children: Models and Best Practices,” sponsored
by the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work.
Speakers representing MA Society for Prevention of Cruelty
to Children, Children’s Trust Fund, Girl Scouts, MA
Citizens for Children, and B.C. School of Social Work
agreed that CORI screening for all staff and volunteers
is important, but noted that the clearance is limited
to within the state, and identifies only those convicted
of crime; other tools are needed. They stressed the
importance of work in the community to create a culture
that provides safety for children. Clinical work is
not possible if the child is not safe. They agreed that
teaching adults, especially parents, how to detect and
report predators, and how to prevent child sexual abuse
are a promising new direction. The Partnership Collaboratives
are working to frame the message so both adults and
children are alert and wise about sexual abuse prevention.
The Girl Scouts publish “Safety Wise” for adults working
with children. VIRTUS and TAT programs deserve to be
implemented and supported, not undermined by rumors
of questionable origins. Mandated reporters need to
be trained and comfortable with their responsibility
and aware of the support available to help them perform
this important task. It is healthy for the Church to
face up to issues of sexuality; every parish would do
well to have a Child Abuse Prevention (or a Safety)
Committee.
One
member of POC, Elia Marnik, who is also a member of
the Structural Change Working Group, reports on the
11/19 meeting of VOTF with Archbishop Sean O’Malley,
which she attended. “The Archbishop’s response to our
working with the Archdiocese on the many issues around
protecting our children was very favorable, and the
first move has been made. It was certainly one of the
most concretely positive things to come from the meeting,
which was quite cordial and comfortable.”
The
next POC meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday,
12/16, at St. John’s in Wellesley, MA
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