Dear Parents,
In an effort to forward the Church's mission of protecting children from abuse, the Archdiocese of Newark is requiring all students enrolled in Faith Formation programs to complete the Empowering God’s Children® program. Developed by Virtus, this is an age-appropriate, comprehensive program through which educators and/or parents can give children and youth the tools they need to protect themselves if someone tries to violate their boundaries. More information can be found in the PROGRAM OVERVIEW.
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Each year, Empowering God's Children will present a theme that introduces and builds on the basic concepts of the TEACHING BOUNDARIES AND SAFETY GUIDE. The material is developmentally appropriate for each age group and includes content and activities that reinforce the message.
This year the Archdiocese of Newark is asking that Lessons 1 & 2 be taught to all students. Each lesson will take about 30 minutes, so you just need to show the video (which is about 8 minutes), and do an activity from each lesson. There are several activities to choose from, but you only need to do one of them.
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Lesson 1 Physical Boundaries: Safe and Unsafe Touching Rules: Students learn simple rules about what to do and how to react when someone’s touch is confusing, scary, or makes the child or young person feel uncomfortable. Young people start to deal with the real risks they face when they are out in the world and on their own, and they begin to learn where to draw boundary lines in relationships.
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Lesson 2 Safe Adults, Safe Touches and Special Safe Adults: Children, young people, and their parents establish basic guidelines for working together to make certain which friends and other adults in their environment can be trusted to act safely and in the best interest of each child or young person.
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To meet the goals of the mission this year, our parish is providing families with the resources to complete the EGC program lessons by April 7.
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Once you have completed the two lessons with your children, please submit the online EGC Parent Acknowledgement Form by April 7, so we can report back to the Archdiocese by April 15 that all of our families have completed the two lessons.
Thank you for your partnership with us in sharing the faith and protecting our youth.
