Wanted: Facilitators to help lead
program to protect children

By Mike Krokos

It takes a village to raise a child.

While that axiom has been a staple heard for decades, a similar saying has appeared on the Church’s landscape in recent years: It takes a whole Church to protect a child.

In the Church, it’s also about creating safe environments for young people, and in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis thousands of employees and volunteers have taken part in “Protecting God’s Children,” an adult program created by VIRTUS to help fulfill the mandate set by the U.S. bishops in their “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in 2002.

“It’s an excellent program for raising awareness for parents and everyone in the Church,” said Edward Isakson, archdiocesan director of human resources, who also serves as a facilitator. VIRTUS is an affiliate of the National Catholic Risk Retention Group in Lisle, Ill., which created the safe environment programs for dioceses nationwide.

The training shares techniques of how to become more aware of child abuse and what to do about it, Isakson said.

“We need to be proactive to prevent abuse from happening in the first place,” he said.

A brochure shared during “Protecting God’s Children” training includes five steps for adults to follow to help potentially detect when child abuse is occurring. They are:

• Know the warning signs
• Control access
• Monitor all programs
• Be aware
• Communicate your concerns

“We’re trying to establish reasonable boundaries,” Isakson said.

He also referred to the VIRTUS training he leads as “sobering” and “difficult to go through” because participants hear from both those who have been abused and known child molesters.

The national statistics shared don’t make things any easier: Child abuse takes place in all facets of society, Isakson said, and one in five girls and one in 10 boys is abused before the age of 18. A video shown during the training is also geared toward adults and not children, Isakson noted.

The training, Isakson added, is one way “we [the Church] want to be part of the solution.”

Though the program is mandatory for all archdiocesan employees and volunteers at parishes, schools and other Church-related groups—including the Catholic Youth Organization—the training is open to anyone.

The archdiocese is currently in need of more VIRTUS facilitators to do training in parishes and deaneries, said Suzanne Yakimchick, chancellor and victim assistance coordinator for the archdiocese.

A VIRTUS Facilitator Training is scheduled for March 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish in Greenwood. Before you volunteer to become a facilitator, you need to have completed awareness training, Isakson noted. A list of regular training sessions is also available online at www.archindy.org or www.virtus.org. Click the “registration” icon and go to Archdiocese of Indianapolis when you visit the VIRTUS site.

Most training sessions last three hours, and Spanish-speaking facilitators have been trained to meet that need, Isakson said.

“I think it’s one of the best things we’ve ever done as a Church,” Isakson said of the training program. “It adds another layer of protection and increases safety in our parishes, schools and programs.”

(For more information on becoming a VIRTUS facilitator, call Suzanne Yakimchick at 317-236-7325 or 800-382-9836, ext. 7325, or Edward Isakson at 317-236-1549 or 800-382-9836, ext. 1549.) †