Child sexual abusers often target nurturing, child-friendly environments, where parents and participants assume that no one would ever want to harm a child. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles began implementing the VIRTUS® Protecting God’s Children sexual abuse prevention program in 2004 to send a message to potential predators that child sexual abuse is not tolerated. Through this program, adults learn that through early identification, awareness, and education they can be “proactive” in protecting children and young people from child sexual abuse. Since the program began, more than 405,000 adults have been trained in abuse prevention. Additionally, more than 165,000 Catholic school and religious education students are trained annually with an age-appropriate curriculum on boundary awareness and how to communicate if violations of those safe boundaries occur.
For more information, visit https://lacatholics.org/education-and-training/.
All volunteers in the parish and school who interact with children must be Virtus trained. If you would like to find a class go to: virtus.org/virtus, click on “First-Time Registrant” in the green box on the left, then click on “View a list of Sessions,” under “Select Your Organization” scroll down to, “Los Angeles-San Gabriel Region.” You may select any region in the Archdiocese that is convenient to you.
For further information, call or email Brenda, bmelendez@la-archdiocese.org, (213) 637-7508.
Remember: Keep up with your Virtus bulletins online!