By Martine Siegel

April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month, a good time to raise awareness about all the Archdiocese and our parishes and schools are doing to address the sexual abuse of children and youth.  A major effort is safe environment training, which is required for all staff and volunteers who work with children.

Parents who attend these sessions sometimes ask why they, as the best protectors of their children, have to attend training when the abuse is being committed by others.  Here are a few thoughts about this question.

There are several reasons why safe environment training has been so valuable for our Catholic community.

1. This training emerged from the reforms of 2002 contained in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which sought to address the terrible reports of priests and other Church leaders who abused children. No child should ever be abused, especially by someone whose task it is to nurture that child’s faith. In addition to many other reforms, the Charter very wisely called all U.S. dioceses to provide education and training on the issue of childhood sexual abuse for persons of all ages.
2. Sexual abuse happens in all segments of society, and 80% of all abused children were abused by parents or other family members.
3. The Church is a very large youth-serving organization. We know that one out of four girls and one out of six boys will be abused by the time they reach adulthood. Even if a priest or church employee never abused any children, we should be doing this training.
4. Because we do live training in the Archdiocese of Louisville, we are able to interact with thousands of individuals (more than 61,000 since the training started in 2003). After the training, we have people lining up to tell their stories. At one session, we were told of the arrest of a father who had been abusing his children because one of his adult children attended a safe environment training and felt empowered to report. Others talk to us about their abuse as children. They tell us how the class helped them to recognize that they need help, and we are able to refer them to the assistance they need. Many attendees who come in with skeptical expressions and crossed arms leave with heartfelt thanks for all they learned.
5. This training also helps adults who may not have experienced abuse in their own lives recognize the signs of abuse in children they may encounter, whether that abuse happens in the context of the Church, a sports program, or a neighborhood. Many adults are not fully aware of their responsibility to report. In this training, they learn of the mandated reporting laws for all adults in Kentucky to report child abuse, and they learn how to do it.
6. The education and empowerment that results from this kind of training, as well as the education provided to children and youth, is one way that we can help to bring about systemic change to combat sexual abuse in our community.

The Archdiocese of Louisville holds regular safe environment trainings, and all adults are welcome.  To learn more, go to www.archlou.org/safe.

Martine Siegel, RN, MSN, CNS is the Victim Assistance Coordinator and the Director of Counseling Services for the Archdiocese of Louisville.