Florida Catholic | Safe Environment Training Teaches Awareness

Safe environment training teaches awareness

Classes are required for all who have contact with vulnerable people in the diocese.

BOB REDDY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC VENICE BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 04.04.08

PUNTA GORDA | Everyone can take simple and effective steps to significantly reduce the likelihood of child sexual abuse and abuse of vulnerable adults, diocesan officials say. One of the first steps is the Safe Environment training class required for everyone who volunteers or works for the Diocese of Venice.

The purpose of the Safe Environment program is to thoroughly screen and evaluate the background of all diocesan employees — clergy, religious and laity — and those volunteers who work with children and elderly people or other vulnerable adults, said Dr. Kathy Kleinlein, director of Safe Environment awareness training and certification for the diocese.

“The more people (who) are aware of what abuse looks and sounds like, the more we can prevent it from happening,” Kleinlein said. “It is our job to be aware because an ounce of prevention will go a long way.”

In Florida, everyone is mandated to report cases of child abuse, abandonment and neglect. “It is also a moral obligation,” Kleinlein said.

The class is one part of a process to safeguard the children and youths from sexual abuse, protect church staff and volunteer workers from potential allegations of sexual abuse, and keep all church staff and volunteer workers aware of abuse against children and vulnerable adults.

In addition, each diocesan employee and those volunteers who work with children or young people also need to be fingerprinted with a new optical fingerprinting system.

The program also holds everyone to Christ-centered and professional codes of conduct.

During a recent class at Sacred Heart Parish in Punta Gorda, Christine MacDonald, one of the diocese’s Safe Environment trainers, told the nearly 200 people details of the issue of abuse of children, including the detection, prevention and reporting of child abuse. She said the goal of the class is to make everyone passionate about reducing the risk of abuse.

Hearing about the warning signs of child sexual abuse or abuse of vulnerable adults is something with which most people are uncomfortable, but Kleinlein said it is an important factor in everyday life.

MacDonald also provided a list of all 12 registered sex offenders living within two miles of Sacred Heart according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She said anyone can go to the FDLE Web site, www.fdle.state.fl.us, to find information about where registered sex offenders live.

The Safe Environment program has reached the classrooms, with students learning to whom to report child abuse.

There are a variety of resources available from the diocese to help people deal with questions and improve awareness. The diocese is audited by a former FBI agent regularly and has established policies for protecting the vulnerable since 2001. All Safe Environment classes are announced ahead of time in the diocesan newsletter and in the Florida Catholic.

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Safe environment training teaches awareness

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