First Things First FAQ
What is all this?
The Diocese of Cleveland has revised the policies and standards so that we can protect God’s children in our Catholic parishes, schools, and other organizations. All of the Diocese’s efforts and our own parish’s efforts work towards this very noble goal of providing a safe environment for young people to become disciples.
Is it for me?
If you are a parish employee or volunteer who will be around minors under age 18 either (1) more than once a month, or (2) more than 4 hours per month, then you need to complete the following steps beforehand. It does not include the occasional volunteer such as a driver or a chaperone for individual activities.
1. COMPLETE Application, Give to Ministry Leader/Coach
Once completed, give this to your ministry head/coach.
3. READ the Diocesan Standards of Conduct
4. PRINT & FILL OUT Standards Acknowledgement Form
On this form, write in the date you attended the parish training OR the date you watched the 3 videos above in Step 2. Once completed, give this to your ministry head/coach.
5. READ the Policy for the Safety of Children
6. PRINT & FILL OUT Policy Acknowledgement Form
On this form, again write in the date you attended the parish training OR the date you watched the 3 videos above in Step 2. Once completed, give this to your ministry head/coach.
Policy for Safety of Children Acknowledgement Form
7. BE VIRTUS TRAINED (if you have not been already)
Every person who works with young people must have gone through the one-time, free, approximately 3hr Virtus class and then registered online through virtus.org.
A. If you HAVE ALREADY done this, even if it was years ago, AND the parish has your Certificate of Completion on file, then you DO NOT need to do it again. If you are not sure if we have your Certificate, please call the parish office at 440-526-1686 to confirm. If we do not have it, but you did go through the training, then there is a way to verify your attendance there. Call us.
B. If you have NEVER been Virtus trained, then you need to schedule a class to attend immediately, which can be done at www.virtus.org and is free. Click on “registration”. Choose the diocese of Cleveland, OH and view the upcoming sessions. Find a date, time, and location of a 3-hour training session that works for you. Attend the training session and bring a COPY your Certificate of Completion to the St. Basil parish office. After the training, enroll to receive training bulletins via email from www.virtus.org.
8. RECEIVE A BACKGROUND CHECK
There are several ways to get a “background check”. One way is through fingerprinting. Another way is by having an authorized company run your Social Security number through their databases on an on-going basis. On-going background checks are the best way to continuously ensure that only responsible persons are serving our young people. The Diocese of Cleveland is employing both of these methods (one-time fingerprinting and recurring Social Security number scans through criminal databases).
What is the “on-going” background check?
The Diocese of Cleveland is joining over 40 other Catholic dioceses in the United States in employing the services of background check company Selection.com. Selection.com is a safe and secure website that provides background check services to companies and non-profit organizations for their purposes of vetting potential hires and volunteers. The system will automatically run a check using your SSN every 3 months. If a new incident is flagged, Selection.com will notify St. Basil the Great parish’s contact person, and the appropriate steps will be taken to determine whether this person may continue in ministry with young people.
Who is Selection.com?
- A national Catholic faith-based background check company located in Cincinnati
- Founded in 1991
- One of the Nation’s leading providers of pre-employment background screening services.
- Works with clients at the local, state, and federal level
- Employers and Organizations are able to verify an applicant’s background check in an average turnaround time of 2 business days.
- Thousands of employers nationwide rely on SELECTiON.COM’s services
- Over 40 Catholic Dioceses use Selection.com, including Los Angeles, Galveston-Houston, Omaha, Covington, Cincinnati
- Checks performed digitally, then manually quality-controlled by humans
- Comprehensive Destruction Policy regarding sensitive information
Call the Parish Office at 440-526-1686 and provide your email to us so we can invite you via email to enroll in Selection.com. Once you have enrolled yourself into the program, Selection.com will run a check for you and all of our staff and volunteers every 3 months to see if there are any incidents that would affect your ability to work with children. The checks performed are designed to only bring up those incidents that directly pertain to working with minors, so the parish will not see “everything you’ve ever done”. The parish will not enter your Social Security number into Selection.com; you will. The parish will not be handling your Social Security number at any point.
We know this process can seem burdensome, but most of these tasks are one-time only.
Our parish simply could not offer so many ministries and opportunities to catechize, evangelize, and support young people without your service, dedication, and generosity.
If you are a ministry head or coach responsible for recruiting volunteers for your ministry, please see these additional materials.