Florida Catholic | Why Safe Environment Training Is So Important

Why Safe Environment training is so important

Kathy Kleinlein, director of the Safe Environment Program for the Diocese of Venice, explains how lay ministers, volunteers and vulnerable persons all benefit from Safe Environment training.

DR. KATHY KLEINLEIN | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 05.09.08

VENICE | Often people come to Safe Environment Awareness Training begrudgingly because they have been told by someone in the parish that unless they attend, they may no longer volunteer with children or provide Eucharist for the homebound.

They do not understand what the abuse of children and vulnerable adults has to do with them. “Why do laypeople in a parish ministry need this training?” they ask.

Did you know there are 600,000 sex offenders in the United States, 100,000 of whom do not register as required by law? Did you know that Florida is home to 33,280 registered sex offenders, the fourth-largest sex offender population behind California, Texas and Michigan?

In the eyes of the law – and even more importantly in the eyes of God –we are responsible for our fellow human beings; but you can’t protect those innocent or frail lives unless you know how to look for and identify the signs of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. That is the essence of Safe Environment Awareness Training. Over the past 10 years, the Diocese of Venice has made thousands of volunteers cognizant of their responsibility to bring awareness and report abuse when they suspect it.

Last year, the diocese added a new dimension to Safe Environment Awareness Training when it added a diocesewide program to make our children aware – both in Catholic schools and in faith formation – of the dangerous situations in which they could find themselves and what to do if that happens. This program for children enhances those taught in our Catholic and public school curriculums such as “Stranger, Danger” and “Good Touch, Bad Touch.” In all cases, parents are also invited to attend the training since they are often the first ones to see the signs (but not always recognize them for what they are without this training) that a child is being abused.

Yes, it is sad when we have to begin teaching children as young as 3 and 4 the dangers of the society in which we live. But better to make one child a little more fearful than to lose that precious life to a sex predator.

If just one parishioner in the diocese reports a suspicious incident a year to the Florida Department of Children and Families, thus stopping a predator in his/her tracks, then all this training will have been worth it. And for the record, Catholic lay ministers in the diocese have already done a heroic job in reporting suspicious incidents which turned out to be potential tragedies.

It is everyone’s responsibility to protect God’s children and vulnerable adults regardless of the place, whether or not you work with children or the homebound. These are the “least of these” about which Jesus speaks in the Gospels, and the only instrument he might have to save a child or frail adult’s life might be you. This is what Safe Environment Awareness Training is all about.

Kleinlein is the Diocese of Venice director of the Safe Environment Program.

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