Safe Environment Class

 

All those who volunteer with minors are required to complete a Safe Environment Education Session.

To register for a Safe Environment Education Session click HERE

SAFEGUARDING ALL GOD’S FAMILY

The goal of the Safeguarding All of God's Family Program is to protect our children and all in the church family from all forms of abuse and neglect.

The program is required for all our priests, parish and school staff, and adult volunteers who have contact with children or youth. This includes those who volunteer at our school and in our Christian Formation program, those who chaperone field trips and retreats, etc. The archdiocese requires that all program requirements shown below must be completed before you may begin any employment or volunteer with children or youth:

  1. Authorize a criminal background check

  2. Read and give your electronic consent to the Code of Ethical Standards and read the Mandatory Reporting Statement

  3. Attend a Safe Environment education session

  4. Read and give your electronic consent to the Social Media & Digital Communications Policy

Meeting the Requirements

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has established an online procedure to meet most of the requirements – including authorization for criminal background checks, an online training module/document regarding the Code of Ethical Standards and Mandatory Reporting Policy, the Social Media & Digital Communications Policy, and pre-registration for attendance at a Safe Environment Education session.

This is the online process:

Go to https://milwaukee.cmgconnect.org to set up your own account (“Create an Account”). By following all instructions, you will be able to complete all the Archdiocesan administrative requirements noted above. This will include completing information for a criminal background check, reading the Code of Ethical Standards & Mandatory Reporting Responsibilities, giving your electronic consent to the Social Media & Digital Communications Policy, and pre-registration for a live Safe Environment Training session.

The final requirement is to attend the Safe Environment Education session for which you have pre-registered.

The parish Safe Environment Coordinator has the responsibility to ensure that all staff members and volunteers are compliant with the program requirements. (See Additional Information below for contact information.)

Criminal Background Check

The criminal background check is authorized as part of the online process described above in the “Meeting the Requirements” section.

To promote and ensure that St Eugene & St. Monica Parish is operating in a safe and sound manner, consistent with its responsibilities and obligations to the faithful and the community, we routinely conduct criminal background checks on all applicants for employment and those volunteers who work with minors. The background check is conducted by a consumer reporting agency in compliance with the federal law, and is called a consumer report or consumer credit report.  The word consumer simply means “individual” (a report on an individual). The report will only include a check of criminal records of individuals. 

The background check will not include a credit check.

Please read the following disclosure notice as required by federal law before completing and signing the background authorization form:

Disclosure Notice for Consumer Report

In connection with your application for employment or volunteer assignment within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, please understand that a background check will be performed as part of normal procedure.  Information will be obtained about you from a consumer reporting agency.  A consumer report may be obtained at any time during the application process and if you are hired or assigned, during your continued employment or volunteer assignment.  St. Eugene and St. Monica Parish will ask you to repeat background checks every five years as necessary. You have the right, upon written request, and after the receipt of this notice, to request a disclosure of the nature and scope of the investigative report.

Before a decision is made to deny your employment or volunteer assignment (called adverse action), when the decision is based in whole or in part on the information contained in the report, you will be provided a copy of the report, the name, address and telephone number of the reporting agency, a summary of your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), as well as additional information regarding your rights under the law.

Note:  Even though the federal act is called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), no credit report will ever be requested.  The FCRA also applies to other items of the background check such as criminal records and those listed above.

Attending a Safe Environment Session

The Safe Environment Session is a two-hour facilitated awareness session about abuse and creating a safe environment. Participants must pre-register online as explained above so that their session attendance can be verified, and they will receive credit for fulfilling this mandatory requirement. Participants may attend any session that is offered, whether at our parish or elsewhere in the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

Additional details regarding session attendance are as follows:

  • The archdiocese requires that volunteers attend a session only once.

  • Volunteers who are 18 and under, including those who are still in high school, are not required to complete these requirements. 

  • A session must be attended even if a person’s occupation already requires this education (for example: police officers, lawyers, doctors, and teachers). 

** Because of COVID-19 restrictions, rather than attending a live, in-person training session, all Safe Environment Training sessions will be done virtually through the end of 2020.  Participants will register for a session using the same process as an in-person session and will be emailed the session log-in information 48 hours prior to the session.

Additional Information

Archdiocese Level

Parish Level

  • Contact the St. Monica/St. Eugene  Parish Safe Environment Coordinator, Mary Martone, at mmartone@stme.church