Program trains adults how to protect children from abuse

The Archdiocese of Newark’s Department for the Protection of the Faithful trains young people to identify and avoid potential abusers. But the Department also knows children and teenagers should not be the only ones looking out for themselves. Youth need adults who will keep them safe — especially when they don’t even realize someone is taking advantage of them.

That is why the Department offers Protecting God’s Children, a workshop that teaches Archdiocesan employees and volunteers how to recognize, report, and prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation. The seminar is mandatory for all newly hired employees, all clergy, and all volunteers who work with minors so the Archdiocese can ensure every adult within its parishes, schools, and pastoral center understands how to appropriately interact with young people and keep them from harm. So far, nearly 100,000 employees have taken the course since its 2002 launch — 500 classes are held every year — and Director Karen Clark believes it has made an extremely positive impact.

“We’ve created a village of protection,” Clark said. “We’ve really heightened the awareness of adults around the Archdiocese to call us if they see something concerning.”

The Protecting God’s Children program is successful because it presents the subject matter using a holistic approach. Participants first watch a video that explains the nature and scope of child abuse and exploitation, including its effect on young people and the reasons youth often have difficulty disclosing it. The video even features interviews with two abusers not associated with the Archdiocese of Newark, who share insights on their methodical and unsettling process of how they have groomed, abused, and exploited their vulnerable prey.

From there, the participants engage in a discussion to fully comprehend what they have just seen. After the initial video and discussion, a second video is shown that explains the five steps to prevent child abuse, what warning signs might look like, and the correct procedure for reporting the abuse to proper authorities.  

After successfully completing the program, the participants receive a certificate, relevant training materials to take with them, and the understanding that they will have to recertify their training every five years. Safe environment compliance officers Elizabeth DeMott and AnnMarie Caliguire regularly check in with each parish’s and school’s local safe environment coordinator to verify compliance.

Clark estimates that the Protecting God’s Children workshop only lasts roughly three hours, but the information it provides can save a child a lifetime of pain. Even those who are initially reluctant to participate acknowledge how valuable the seminar is by the time they complete it, she said.

“Some people make it clear they didn’t want to come,” Clark said. “But when they leave, they raise their hands and they say ‘Why doesn’t every parent in our parish take this class?’”

Any adult with children in their lives can benefit from taking the course. Aside from teaching participants how to spot potential abusers, the class also makes people aware of threats they might have overlooked. For example, DeMott pointed out that there are gaming sites and social media platforms many adults have never heard of where children could be interacting with dangerous people. Protecting God’s Children shows participants how to assess whether a platform is safe and govern a child’s usage so they are never harmed.

“We are really here to empower and educate them so they can, in turn, be better support for the children,” DeMott said.

Additionally, the program urges adults to be open when it comes to discussing sensitive subjects with children — especially topics involving their bodies. That means using anatomically correct terms when describing body parts. If children are only taught whimsical euphemisms, Clark explained, it’s going to create confusion if they ever have to describe where someone is inappropriately touching them. And they might not get the help they need as a result, she said.

Alternatively, Caliguire pointed out that boys and girls might not want to disclose abuse at all if they don’t feel they can talk about it. That’s why she said it’s crucial to show young people they can discuss anything with adults who can intervene when something’s wrong.

“If children are not comfortable sharing about the secrecy of their bodies, then how are they going to feel comfortable talking about what someone else is doing to their bodies?” Caliguire said.

Due to this open dialogue — along with the trained adults’ enhanced ability to identify suspicious persons — abusers are more likely to be caught. But many abusers are skilled at detecting when people are on to them. As a result, they flee from where they are working before getting apprehended, often moving on to another parish or school to find new victims under less scrutiny.

Fortunately, Protecting God’s Children addresses that. The program encourages participants to not only report within their parish or school, but also to either call 911 or inform the Division for Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P, formerly DYFS) when they feel a child is being or has been abused. In addition, if they just have seen troubling behavior that did not rise to this level, and the person has left the parish or school, they should alert the Department for the Protection of the Faithful. The Department will then flag the individual on Virtus, the Archdiocese’s master compliance database, in order to be able to communicate the concern if and when the person ever applies to be a volunteer or employee at another parish or school.

With these safeguards and training, the Department believes Protecting God’s Children is a huge asset in its mission to fight child sexual abuse and exploitation. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest it’s effective, too. Clark said her office gets calls from employees who wish to report suspicious behavior after taking the workshop. And now that a behavioral standard has been set through Protecting God’s Children, she said it’s become even easier to identify workers acting abnormally.

In other words, young people within our Archdiocese can rest assured that the Department for the Protection of the Faithful will do all they can, along with the trusted adults in their lives, to keep them safe.

For more information on the Department for the Protection of the Faithful and its Protecting God’s Children program, visit https://www.rcan.org/offices-and-ministries/child-youth-protection.