CHARLOTTE — Abuse-prevention training for volunteers is ramping up as activities return to parishes and schools in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Volunteers, like staff, undergo VIRTUS training, called “Protecting God’s Children,” and undergo a background check. “Protecting God’s Children” helps adults learn to recognize the warning signs of abuse and the many ways that sexual abuse harms victims, families, parishes and communities. It teaches them appropriate ways to respond to suspicious behaviors and how they can help to prevent abuse.
While VIRTUS training never stopped when COVID-19 forced parishes and schools to halt in-person gatherings, activities and volunteerism, Amy Ankenbruck, the safe environment program coordinator for the Diocese of Charlotte, said she is thrilled to see an increase in both the number of in-person training sessions and the number of volunteers completing training.
“I see a real uptick of volunteers now, especially parents registering to complete training to help at their child’s school,” Ankenbruck said. “Schools and parishes rely heavily on volunteers.”
After a year without in-person training sessions, there are nine scheduled from July through September. For all of the last fiscal year, ending in June 2021, there were only 20 in-person training sessions held. That’s down from 127 the prior year ending in June 2020 and 196 in the year before.
From July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, 1,383 people completed this training, about 10 percent of them in live sessions.
That’s a third of the number of people who completed the course the year before. And more than half of those were trained in-person. The year prior, which was not impacted by the shutdown, had nearly 4,500 people complete VIRTUS, with 3,352 trained live.
Background checks obtained by the diocese are also starting to trend toward a typical year’s amount. There were nearly 5,000 background check requests in the fiscal year prior to COVID-19. The fiscal year of 2019-’20, which was only affected by the shutdown for a few months, saw 4,644 background requests.
Last fiscal year’s total was 3,786. That number was only that high because the diocese switched vendors and had a “free” grace period where they completed a lot of renewals during that time to save money, diocesan officials noted.
“Background checks are definitely picking up again,” said diocesan Human Resources Director Terri Wilhelm.
VIRTUS has always had online training available and some people did take advantage of that during the shutdown, Ankenbruck said. There were even a couple training sessions held virtually over Zoom.
“We prefer the live training,” she said. “You get so much more out of having a facilitator there to answer questions and to lead group discussions.”
A challenge for Ankenbruck and parish-level facilitators now is that some volunteer accounts lapsed over the past year. If you need help with reinstating your account, contact Ankenbruck or your parish.
Updated program coming
People often ask: “Why do I need this training?” Ankenbruck said.
“Protecting God’s Children” focuses on how to create a safe environment for children – not looking at everyone, including those who attend the classes, as a potential abuser, she noted. “We don’t teach fire safety because we think you’re an arsonist. We all learn about fire safety. It’s not because you think you’re going to set the world on fire. It’s learning how to conduct ourselves to be safe and identifying if someone else isn’t acting in a safe way.”
“Protecting God’s Children” is releasing a new, updated program with revamped videos, discussion points and more precise language. Ankenbruck said she hopes to start training parish facilitators with the new program next month.
“The biggest thing with the training is it really focuses on how to detect something that is of concern, not even to the level of abuse,” she said. “It’s recognizing something wrong and being able to report what is happening.”
She said the revamped program emphasizes the message of hope and that we do have the ability to make a difference in others’ lives. The new program also has clear directives on what to do if you notice something that isn’t right.
— Kimberly Bender, online reporter
More online
At www.virtusonline.org: Find an upcoming training session or continue your ongoing training