By Barb Arland-Fye
DAVENPORT — The Diocese of Davenport is in compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, says the company that audits the diocese’s safe environment program. StoneBridge Business Partners of Rochester, N.Y., has forwarded documents from the 2012 audit to the Secretariat of Youth and Child Protection, which produces an annual report on the progress made throughout the United States in implementing and maintaining the charter’s standards.
“We’re in compliance. That’s good news,” said Vicar General Msgr. John Hyland who coordinates the data collection process on behalf of Bishop Martin Amos. “Every year we’ve been in compliance,” Msgr. Hyland noted.
The charter, first approved in 2002, requires dioceses and eparchies (church jurisdictions) to provide education and training for children, youths, parents, ministers, educators, volunteers and others about ways to make and maintain a safe environment for children and young people.
More than 12,250 individuals in the Davenport Diocese have been trained in the safe environment program since 2002 and 1,827 have completed the five-year renewal requirement, said Mary Wieser, the diocese’s director of faith formation and coordinator of Safe Environment. “We have gone from a facilitator-led, onsite training program to an online-training program which is more convenient for people.” She also noted that all children in diocesan schools and in religious education programs receive safe environment training every academic year….
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