PARSIPPANY On Feb. 1, the diocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection plans to launch a new and improved website through Virtus Online and Fastrax Select — a service of Selection.com — which will simplify the registration and verification process of criminal background checks for the more than 20,000 clergy, employees and volunteers, who minister, work or serve in parishes, schools and agencies of the Church of Paterson.
Eric Wilsusen, the new director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection since Nov. 7, invited local youth protection coordinators of parishes and schools to a meeting Dec. 13 at All Saints Academy here. He introduced himself to the coordinators and introduced a new website which is part of the Diocese’s Protecting God’s Children program to prevent child abuse. In January, coordinators will be trained to use the new online system that promises to reduce administrative work for them and cut costs. That’s because the system places the responsibility to complete the registration process on the employees and volunteers, who will be undergoing background checks and attending training sessions, he said.
“I will be in communication with you constantly,” Wilsusen, a former deputy chief of the Jefferson Township Police Department who retired in January, told coordinators and other parish and school administrators at the gathering in All Saints’ gym. In addition, he has served as a local youth protection coordinator for his parish, Our Lady Star of the Sea in Lake Hopatcong, and as a Protecting God’s Children facilitator. “I have been in the trenches with you. We have an important job — to make certain the right people are working with our children in our parishes and schools,” he said.
The training dates on Thursday, Jan. 11 for coordinators with Virtus Online and Fastrax Select are set for: 10 a.m. at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church, Sparta; at 1 p.m. at the St. John Paul II Center, Clifton; and at 7 p.m. at St. John Paul II Center. Another session will be held on Friday, Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization, Madison. Representatives from Virtus Online and Fastrax Select will be present to answer any questions about the service, said Wilsusen, who has 31 years of experience in law-enforcement.
The new Virtus Online and Fastrax Select system — which replaces the Diocese’s use of a system by Sterling Talent Solutions —will offer an integrated process, which will enable employees or volunteers to register online. They will type in their personal information on the secure web site; read the Code of Conduct; and sign a disclosure form, which gives the Diocese permission to search for information about him or her through public records. Then, they will view the schedule of upcoming workshop sessions for “Protecting God’s Children.” The individual will not be considered active in the system until he or she attends a live training session and completes the Code of Conduct and will not be permitted to work or volunteer at a parish or school until he or she has completed a background check, he said.
With Virtus Online and Fastrax Select, coordinators can view the status of each individual online and print out reports. After a trial period, they eventually will be able to edit and manage those records. This system also marks a significant improvement from the past, when coordinators had to print out the registration forms for the person to complete; enter the information in the system; and print out the Code of Conduct, the disclosure form and the schedule of “Protecting God’s Children” workshops — wasting time and paper. Now, coordinators will not be required to print out compliance reports — only saving them electronically — for annual child-protection audits conducted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he said.
The Diocese will pay for each background check, while each parish, school or agency will continue to pay for the fingerprinting of the individuals. Also, Virtus Online and Fastrax will recheck each individual every three months at no cost — for an added sense of security for the Diocese, said Thomas Barrett, diocesan coordinator of special projects.
“This new system will be more convenient for parishes and schools. It will be more accessible to the coordinators and also to the individuals, who now enter their own information,” Barrett said. Since the Diocese instituted a background-check system many years ago, parishes and schools have been able to prevent people with criminal histories of child abuse or endangerment from working or volunteering in those locations.
Starting in the fall of 2018, the Diocese intends to start “Keeping the Promise” refresher workshops around Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties. The Office of Child and Youth Protection continues to look for people to facilitate its live sessions and parishes to host them. The live workshops provide updated information on ways to protect children from predators to newer individuals to the Diocese, or a refresher to individuals who have been associated with the Diocese for more than five years. Those people associated with the Diocese for fewer than five years can complete an online version of the workshop, Wilsusen said.
“We are more than paper pushers or records collectors,” Wilsusen told the gathering of local youth protection coordinators, who also gave him feedback on the plan. “Remember that you are here to help our parishes and schools provide a safe environment for our children in addition to making sure that the right people are working with our children. Thank you for what you do,” he said.
[Anyone interested in becoming a facilitator is encouraged to call Eric Wilsusen at
(973) 777-8818, ext. 257, or email him at [email protected].]