Introducing the Orthodox Safety Council
The Orthodox Safety Council is a non-profit organization providing safety resources for the Orthodox church . We provide “safe environment” programs, education, and accountability for Orthodox parishes seeking to protect their communities from sexual misconduct or abuse.
A “safe environment” program requires training of parents, ministers, educators, church personnel, volunteers and others regularly involved with minors as to the issue of abuse of children, including sexual abuse.
Training relating to prevention, identification, response and reporting will be provided to ministers, educators, parents, volunteers, church personnel and others who have regular contact with youth.
Minors are not the only ones open to victimization. Sexual misconduct with adults is also a known issue within the church, and is often under-reported. Training will also be provided to educate community members on the issues involved with abuse of power and sexual misconduct with adults.
Short term, our goal is to create a standardized safe environment program and make it available to all Orthodox churches in a professional and affordable manner. In particular, online educational resources and Internet based training will provide a universally accessible and inexpensive way to reach all parish communities.
Long term, multiple delivery methods could include formal training sessions led by experienced child-safety professionals, independent reading material, videos, or information posted on our web-site.
Beyond the training under development by the Orthodoxy Safety Council and those offered by public and private social service agencies and schools, there are a variety of “safe environment” programs available commercially. The National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministers, Washington, DC (www.nfcym.org) is an excellent resource regarding codes of conduct for adults and youth as is the National Center for Mission and Exploited Children (www.ncmec.org). Educational resources from these other agencies may also be employed.
Background investigations of personnel who have regular contact with minors must be conducted. Such investigations are best conducted by a reputable professional agency, law enforcement or social service agency. Background investigations should include criminal history checks of the employee/volunteer and, if lawful in your state, the employee/volunteer should be asked if they have ever been accused of or investigated for an act of abuse or harassment. References must be checked.
Most agencies, private and public, charge for this work. The costs vary. The Orthodox Safety Council will work with Orthodox Churches to provide these services as an independent agency for a low fee.
A similar example to what we are undertaking is a Roman Catholic national mandate on safe environment programs: http://www.usccb.org/ocyp/websafe.shtml
Here are examples of online Roman Catholic courses: http://www.virtus.org
We will also provide content which Parishes can include on their local web site. Here is an example Catholic parish page on a local safe environment program: http://www.archny.org/pastoral/safe-environment-program/
We would also like to provide an automated software system to register and track training and background checks such as what this software provides: http://www.parishsoft.com
Providing a safe environment is an ongoing activity; it is not a one-time event. Our training, offered regularly to church workers, and our background checks, done periodically on youth workers and church leaders, will provide an independent compliance mechanism to aid Orthodox churches in protecting their communities from sexual misconduct or abuse.
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About
The Orthodox Safety Council is a non-profit organization providing “safe environment” programs, education, and accountability for Orthodox parishes seeking to protect their communities from sexual misconduct or abuse.