IOWA
Catholic Globe
By Colleen Sulsberger
Protecting the Innocent
Communicating concerns about someone’s behavior without causing additional angst or creating more problems is difficult and uncomfortable. When we come to this part of the Virtus training class, I often find it difficult to get participants to share their thoughts. Yet, it’s one of the most important parts of the steps we all must take to protect children. Many children have been rescued by courageous caregivers who set their fear and discomfort aside and spoke up when they noticed something that didn’t seem right to them. Let’s go one step further to discuss how someone in a supervisory capacity can have an effective conversation to relay the communicated concern.
Some of you may be thinking of not reading any further. After all, you are not “in charge” of anything at the parish or school; you are just supervising the playground or helping with religious ed. But everyone has the responsibility to keep their eyes and ears open when kids are around, watching the interactions between them, between the adults and the kids, and all of the issues we will address are relevant to situations at work, at community events, in committee activities, or even for someone who is in charge of cleaning the kitchen after a church dinner. At some time or other, most of us have some responsibility for other adults who are working with us, or are in situations where children are working or playing nearby where we can observe. This article is intended to help you be better prepared for those situations.
A common problem arises when concerns about behavior, which may be genuine and sincerely meant to foster safer environments, create stress for the supervisor who needs to communicate them, fearing that delivering this message could cause someone to quit the volunteer program. No one likes to feel they are being accused, so this reaction is understandable, but it underscores the importance of having everybody on your team current on their Virtus training. In that way, supervisors can remind everyone that as adults, we all take the responsibility for keeping an eye on each other and letting our teammates know if we are doing something that causes concern.
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