Protecting Our Children
Report from Mary Lanigan

Our October meetings were back to back. On Tuesday, 10/21, at St. John’s in Wellesley, we focused (1) on how to answer questions about the implementation of the VIRTUS and the Talking About Touching (TAT) programs and (2) on our role in the Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Partnership. We decided to ask Directors of Religious Education a few questions about VIRTUS and TAT that could be answered briefly by phone. (1. How is your VIRTUS program going? 1a. Has the training gone well? 1b. Is everyone trained? 2. Do your participants think the Reporting Policies are clear? 3. Have you been trained in TAT (Talking About Touching)? 4. Do you have a Parish Safety Committee?)

Joining us for the meeting were Gail Sommer and Paula Tarrant, both of the Newton Child Assault Prevention Program (CAPP) and both leaders in the newly formed Newton Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Partnership. The Newton Partnership, which held an orientation meeting the previous day at which POC was represented, is one of the three local collaboratives of the Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Partnership (MCSAPP). The other two are Gloucester and Orange/Athol in the Quabban region. (For background on the POC membership in the MCSAPP, and on the pilot program to develop permanent local collaboratives for child sexual abuse prevention, go to the POC link on the VOTF web site and click “Protecting Our Children Working Group Meeting Notes, 9/16/03.)

The Newton Partnership has set up three committees, which share responsibility for outreach: Steering, Public Education, and Community Organization and Outreach. As we talked of prevention programs that the Newton Partnership might use, Gail and Paula told us that through CAPP they are experienced with TAT and are eager to be trained in VIRTUS. They noted that CAPP, which is less specific than TAT, sends trained people into pre-school through sixth grade classrooms; whereas, TAT instructs classroom teachers to present its program. Gail, who chairs NCSAPP steering committee, invited us to continue sending a representative to Newton Partnership meetings.

On 10/22 we met with Megan Freedman, Project Director for the MCSAPP, and Sarah Spurgeon, MCSAPP Project Assistant, to discuss POC’s role preparing for an October 2004 MCSAPP Conference that will feature the three permanent local collaboratives. POC will work on logistics: (1) a location central to the three pilot communities (2) a facility available on a Thursday or Friday in October and able to accommodate 500 in both general assembly and break-down sessions (3) transportation for Gloucester, Newton, and Quabban pilot communities (4) announcements and recruitment of attendees (5) registration. Help with these tasks will be gratefully received. At present, Westford seems the most central location.

For its 11/18 meeting, POC attended a panel discussion, “Protecting Children: Models and Best Practices,” sponsored by the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. Speakers representing MA Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Children’s Trust Fund, Girl Scouts, MA Citizens for Children, and B.C. School of Social Work agreed that CORI screening for all staff and volunteers is important, but noted that the clearance is limited to within the state, and identifies only those convicted of crime; other tools are needed. They stressed the importance of work in the community to create a culture that provides safety for children. Clinical work is not possible if the child is not safe. They agreed that teaching adults, especially parents, how to detect and report predators, and how to prevent child sexual abuse are a promising new direction. The Partnership Collaboratives are working to frame the message so both adults and children are alert and wise about sexual abuse prevention. The Girl Scouts publish “Safety Wise” for adults working with children. VIRTUS and TAT programs deserve to be implemented and supported, not undermined by rumors of questionable origins. Mandated reporters need to be trained and comfortable with their responsibility and aware of the support available to help them perform this important task. It is healthy for the Church to face up to issues of sexuality; every parish would do well to have a Child Abuse Prevention (or a Safety) Committee.

One member of POC, Elia Marnik, who is also a member of the Structural Change Working Group, reports on the 11/19 meeting of VOTF with Archbishop Sean O’Malley, which she attended. “The Archbishop’s response to our working with the Archdiocese on the many issues around protecting our children was very favorable, and the first move has been made. It was certainly one of the most concretely positive things to come from the meeting, which was quite cordial and comfortable.”

The next POC meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, 12/16, at St. John’s in Wellesley, MA

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