As we begin a new academic year, the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People will focus on the importance of reading VIRTUS Training Bulletins.

VIRTUS Protecting God’s Children for Adults live training is a valuable tool in helping all adults understand the dangers our society poses to youth and gives us the resources to protect them to the best of our ability. The program is simple in design yet powerful in its message. The three-hour training was designed by experts in the educational field to incorporate a balance of visual, audio, kinesthetic and verbal components in order to help every type of learner walk away with knowledge regarding child predators and reporting procedures.

Virtually all volunteers and employees in our parishes and schools are required to attend the live training. Additionally certain people are also required to visit their VIRTUS online profile each month to read a short training bulletin. This responsibility is required of adults who supervise others in their ministry. The bulletins require about five to ten minutes of time and the correct response to a question prompt at the end.

Bulletin topics within the past year have included

• Good Boundaries Yield Healthy Relationships
• The Battered Child Syndrome
• Electronic Dating Violence Among Teens
• Fostering or Adopting Sexually Abused Children

The variety of topics and their timely nature encourage those of us in supervisory positions to remain alert to potential threats.

If you believe you should be receiving bulletins and aren’t, or if you receive bulletins and you no longer supervise others, please contact the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People. We can add the bulletins to your profile or remove the ongoing responsibility if you changed roles.