Reminders for coordinators

Chaperones for Overnight Trips: In January, many schools and parishes will send students to the March for Life in Washington, DC. Please keep in mind that chaperones who attend overnight trips with youth must complete all safe environment requirements before the event. This is true even if the chaperone is not a regular volunteer/employee. Therefore, criminal checks should be sent in for processing at least 3 weeks before the event in order to guarantee that they will be processed in time. If you need to expedite any criminal checks, please feel free to contact Eve Mongeau at 669-3100 Ext. 109 or emongeau@rcbm.org  and she will do her best to assist you. In addition, if you need to schedule a PGC training session for your chaperones, please contact your deanery trainer directly. The trainers need advance notice to schedule sessions this time of year due to their busy parish outreach schedules. 

Overdue individuals: Please check the database pending list for your parish or school. At this time, there are a number of persons showing as overdue in our database. It is possible that you have the forms on file but have forgotten to enter the information into the database. Please double check and please contact us should you have questions.

Deadline for updating overdue pending individuals is December 20

Letters were emailed to pastors, principals, and coordinators on December 1st listing the names of any employees and volunteers who are overdue in meeting the safe environment requirements. All those who are overdue must complete the missing items on or before December 20, or they are ineligible to work with minors until doing so. Please refer to the letters for more details, or log on to the Safe Environment Database to view and update the relevant information. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Mary Ellen D’Intino (medintino@rcbm.org) or Eve Mongeau (emongeau@rcbm.org) or by phone at (603) 669-3100.

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Protecting Vulnerable Adults

Some parishes have outreach programs for the elderly or other vulnerable adults. Volunteers working with the elderly or with other “incapacitated” adults should be informed of how to report suspected abuse. Inquiries and reports should be made to the Department of Health and Human Services Adult Protection Program at 1-800-949-0470. In addition, the Adult Protection Agency is available to provide free informational workshops to those working with the elderly and homebound. For further information, contact Rachel Lakin at 271-4347. Rachel is a supervisor at the agency and she will refer interested parishes to a local agency representative who can meet with your volunteers.

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Tips for Tracking CYO team volunteers and Scout troop volunteers

Safe Environment Coordinators: Now is the time to double check and make sure that all parish CYO and Boy Scout volunteers are in compliance with the safe environment requirements. Read about some tips that will help you keep track of CYO coaches and Boy Scout volunteers.
 

Tips for tracking CYO coaches and Boy Scout Volunteers

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Internet Safety Articles

These articles may be distributed to parents and other interested adults.

Internet Safety for Elementary School Aged Students (pdf)

Internet Safety for High School Aged Students (pdf)

YouTube and Your Kids (pdf)

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Emergency Plan Guidelines for Religious Education Programs (doc)

Emergency Plan Guidelines for Religious Education Programs (pdf)

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Circles of Care and Netsmartz lesson plans and documents are available on the Web.

Did you know that the Circles of Care and Netsmartz lessons, including the handouts, take-home pages, classroom attendance sheets and tally sheets, are available on the diocesan Web site? Catechetical leaders can download and print the documents as needed and can also make them available to parents for their review or for at-home teaching. For example, parents who wish to view the lessons can be directed to the Web site where they can read about the program and look at all of the lessons.

Circles of Care (or Netsmartz for students in grades 7-12) is taught annually in all diocesan Catholic schools and parish religious education classes. Click here to view the lessons or for more information.

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Looking for a Safe Environment Coordinator?

CLICK HERE for a helpful bulletin announcement to use if you are in need of a new Safe Environment Coordinator.

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Important Reminders - August

Safe Environment Coordinators: Please keep in mind the following important deadlines and information.

SCHOOLS

•   Coaches- Many sports programs begin this month. Please add the names of new coaches into the safe environment database as they become available. Coaches only have 30 days to complete ALL safe environment requirements. Please request a list of all coaches from your athletic director as this list needs to be submitted to the Office for Ministerial Conduct in September (more information to follow).

•   Employees- As new staff are hired, please add their names into the database as soon as possible. Make sure they complete their applications, acknowledgement forms, and criminal record checks/fingerprinting as part of the hiring process. Employees, like coaches, only have 30 days from the date of hire to complete all requirements. Principals/athletic directors should inform new hires of this when they make an offer of employment. 

PARISHES

Prepare for upcoming fall programs:

• Obtain the names of new religious education volunteers as soon as they are available. Enter the names into the database for tracking and move to inactive the names of those who are no longer volunteering this year.
   
• If you have not already done so, schedule a PGC session and announce it in the bulletin and through the religious education department. CLICK HERE to see how to schedule a PGC session.
   
• Contact your Boy Scout and CYO leaders to let them know that you will need their adult volunteer lists as soon as possible.

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Reminder: If an employee or volunteer has been “inactive” and is returning to a ministry where they will work with minors, please review the person’s safe environment file before moving the person’s database status to “active.” When reviewing the file, you should verify that you have on file both an application and an Acknowledgment Form. Also, you should verify that these forms are completed correctly and fully, and get any corrections or updates made before moving the status to “active.” Thank you!

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Archived Notices & Tips

Reminders for coordinators
How to Search the Safe Environment Database
Tips for reviewing volunteer and employee applications
What to do when a person is already in the database