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Safe Environment
for Our Children
Both the diocese and
our parish insist that all adults who work or volunteer even on a
limited basis with children complete the Safe Environment program. It does take effort
on our part, but we owe it to our children. This whole program is free
and is a valuable way to help protect our children.
It is necessary to
complete all of these steps in order to work with children. If you have not yet signed up for the program,
please do so soon so that you can be involved in the various activities
here at St. Timothy Parish.
For more information or to check on your status, please contact
Kay Schuele
at the parish office (384-1100).
The process involves
several steps:
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Participate in a
“Protecting God’s Children” training session. The sessions take place at various
locations in the diocese usually on a Saturday morning or a weekday
evening. Register at
www.virtus.org.
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Complete the
volunteer application form and submit to a background check.
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Read the
diocesan “Policies and Procedures for Addressing Sexual Misconduct”.
Complete and sign the acceptance form for this policy.
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Read the required monthly
training bulletins at
www.virtus.org to continue the education process. By e-mail, you
will be notified to complete the monthly assignment. The
status of your online training is shown on the website.
To simplify the Safe
Environment Program in the Diocese of Covington, the following
changes are effective on January 1, 2011:
- Everyone will be assigned online
monthly bulletins and read only monthly bulletins. There will be
no more quarterly modules or yearly recertification modules. You
will have 30 days from the date assigned to complete the online
monthly bulletin. Go to www.virtus.org and
click onto the training tab to read your assigned bulletins.
- If the bulletin is not completed, your
account will be suspended. Once suspended, you will stay
suspended until the “drop suspension” month.
(see #3). Please pay special attention to
this as if you are suspended, there is nothing that can be done
until the “drop suspension” month.
- Calls to the Diocese will not be
accepted to open suspended accounts. Suspensions will be
automatically dropped in December, April and August. You will
have 30 days to catch up. After the 30 day period, all non
compliant accounts will be put into suspension. This means you
will not be able to volunteer during the next 3 months. NO
EXCEPTIONS! (Note-the deadline for this first time is Dec. 26,
2010). Reading your bulletins will alert the parish or school
that you are available to volunteer during the next quarter.
US Conference of
Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
Office of Child &
Youth Protection.
USCCB Charter for the
Protection of Children and Young People.
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