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Sheet on the New
York Times case
The
Safe Environment Program
of the Diocese of Bridgeport
Visit our dedicated webpages: click here
Parents need
to ask, "How safe is my child's
school?" Click here
Safe
Environment programs were established in U.S. Roman Catholic
Dioceses by the Catholic Bishops in June
2002 in
a landmark document, The
Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a.k.a.
"the
Charter."
 Safe Environment programs are well established
in all three Roman Catholic Dioceses in Connecticut.
The Safe
Environment program in the Diocese of Bridgeport, founded in June 2003, has a full
time director, Ms. Erin Neil,
L.C.S.W.
Safe Environment programs
oversee the implementation of Charter mandates
including victim assistance, criminal background checks, written Codes
of Conduct, and child sexual abuse awareness and prevention
training for Priests, Deacons, Lay Employees, Volunteers, Children,
and Youth.
All three Archdioceses and dioceses in Connecticut
received an external compliance audit each year since 2003. The
Diocese of Bridgeport has always been found to be in full compliance
and even exceeded these standards.
VICTIM ASSISTANCE
The
Diocese of Bridgeport has had a Victim Assistance Program in
place since 2003.
We currently have two Victim Assistance Coordinators
employed full time who are both licensed clinical social workers
in the State of Connecticut: Bill
Hoey, L.C.S.W., and
Erin
Neil, L.C.S.W. In fact, all three dioceses in Connecticut have victim
assistance programs in place to provide healing and outreach
to survivors of child sexual abuse committed by any person from
the Church and, in many cases, by persons not from the Church.
We provide help to victims and their families including
counseling, financial and other forms of outreach specific to
the person’s needs. We offer this outreach regardless of whether
the abuse occurred recently or in the past and for as long as
necessary for healing to take place. All victims are offered
an apology and a meeting with the Bishop.
Safe Environments has
proven a resource for people beyond the Catholic Church.
AWARENESS
TRAINING
The Catholic Church has trained close to
8 million adults and children in the past six years. In the
State of Connecticut, the Catholic Church reached close to
200,000 people through child abuse prevention and awareness
training.
In the Diocese of Bridgeport alone, we reached
over 95,000 adults and children with live training and educational
materials. More than 60,000 adults and children attended a
live training program called VIRTUS (for adults) and The
Child Lures Prevention, Think
First & Stay Safe Program (for children and parents).
An additional 40,000+ brochures and materials on child safety
and abuse prevention were distributed.
 Training for children
includes lessons on how to spot early warning signs and grooming
behaviors in sex offenders (i.e. being aware of adults who give
gifts without parent’s permission, go overboard wrestling or
tickling or asking to meet alone in a secluded area). Children
learn to identify and report the most common lures and tricks
employed by child molesters. We also provide lessons on abduction
prevention, bullying prevention, and Internet safety.
Child sexual
abuse prevention training is provided for every student enrolled
in Catholic Schools, grades K-12 each year, and parents are always
offered the chance to preview the programs and every parent receives
training materials so that they can continue teaching these safety
lessons at home. VIRTUS for adults teaches participants
to spot early warning signs and grooming behaviors in offenders
of child sexual abuse and information on how to make a report
of suspected abuse to both the State of Connecticut child abuse
hotline and to the Diocese.
BACKGROUND CHECKS
Every
adult who works or volunteers in the Diocese of Bridgeport, including
Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, Religious Sisters and brothers,
Lay Employees, Lay Volunteers, School Parent Volunteers, Independent
Contractors, and Vendors are required to complete a criminal
background check.
More than 20,000 checks have been completed
in the Diocese of Bridgeport and over 50,000 background checks
were conducted by all three Connecticut Catholic Dioceses combined.
We have a zero tolerance policy for any person
with a sex crime or crime against children.
CODE OF CONDUCT &
SEXUAL
MISCONDUCT POLICY
These policies provide a set of
standards and guidelines for appropriate conduct when working
with children, youth and vulnerable adults.
HALLMARKS
OF OUR SAFE ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM:
- We reach out to all victims with compassion and dignity to
nurture healing and reconciliation.
- We have a zero tolerance policy for any person with a sex
crime or crime against children.
- We have established a Sexual Misconduct Review Board to advise
Bishop Lori on matters relating to clergy sexual abuse.
- We carefully screen all candidates for ordination.
- We conduct criminal background checks on every adult who
works or volunteers in the Diocese of Bridgeport.
- We have trained 90,000 people in the warning signs of abuse
and how to report suspected abuse.
- We have spoken openly and often about this topic, particularly
to parents.
Parents
need to ask:
"How safe is my child’s school?"
By ERIN NEIL, L.C.S.W.
Director of Safe Environments and the Victim Assistance
Coordinator for the Diocese of Bridgeport
As a mother, social worker, and director of a child sexual abuse
prevention program, back to school is on the forefront of my
mind. Many of us have begun entrusting our precious little ones
to the care and supervision of others.
I hope parents will take some time to call their schools and
ask the most important questions concerning safety. An alarming
statistic is that there are approximately
40
million survivors
of child sexual abuse in the United States. Most frightening
is the fact that child sexual abuse is almost always committed
by people we know and trust. There is no exclusive gender, age,
sexual orientation, occupation, or physical profile to a child
molester and they may have children of their own.
Knowing these facts can guide us. Parents need to ask every school
and athletic program their child participates in – public or
private – these specific questions that can prevent child abuse:
- Is a criminal background check or are fingerprints
required for EVERY adult who may come in contact with my
child? It is important to be specific: is it required
of every employee, coach, referee, member of the clergy,
afterschool tutors, school nurses, social workers, para-professionals,
teachers, substitutes, classroom aides, janitors, bus drivers,
assistants and parent volunteers? What about landscapers
and other independent contractors routinely on school property?
Preventing child sexual abuse requires carefully considering
every adult in the environment, not just those who work directly
with children. The law requires background checks for many
adults who work with children and mandatory reporting of
suspected abuse to civil authorities, but it is important
to be sure that every person your child encounters throughout
their day is safe and knows how to make a report of abuse
to civil authorities.
- Is there a zero tolerance policy so that no one may
work or volunteer any length of time if there is even one
single verified act of sexual abuse against a child? Sex
offenders tend to have multiple victims and many repeat their
crime when given the opportunity. We must make environments
where children are present zero opportunity.
- Do you provide prevention training for children and
adults? Not every person who commits crimes against
children is reported to civil authorities or has been convicted.
Adults need to be made aware of the earliest warning signs
in offenders through awareness training and internal policies.
A Code of Conduct can play a significant role in communicating
high standards of safety and appropriate boundaries when
working with minors. Once a parent attends our mandatory
awareness training, I hear over and over that every parent
should do the same.
The 39 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Bridgeport are implementing
one of the most comprehensive safety programs that exists. The
diocese provides an annual child abuse prevention program for
its 11,000 schoolchildren and their parents. Children in K-12
learn to identify and avoid the most common tricks employed by
child molesters in person and online.
Our “VIRTUS Protecting God’s Children” program (www.virtus.org)
instructs adults in every Catholic school and our 87 Catholic
parishes on the warning signs, safe boundaries when working with
minors, and how to report abuse to civil authorities. VIRTUS
is required of all priests, deacons, seminarians, lay employees,
volunteers, all parent volunteers, and even our independent contractors.
Every adult is instructed to report any suspicion of abuse of
a minor to the Connecticut Department of Children and Family
Services within 12 hours.
Close to 60,000 adults
and children to date have completed a live training program,
and an additional 40,000 people were reached through informational
brochures and parent guides.
The more people who are cleared through a criminal background
check and the more people we can make aware of the warning signs,
the safer our children will be.
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