The Office of Safe Environment oversees the implementation of the diocesan program, “A Safe Environment for the Protection of Children and Young People.” The Office provides education resources for children, clergy, religious, and laity (employees and volunteers) in the prevention of and recognition of child abuse. This office is also responsible for processing criminal history checks on all clergy, religious, and laity who have contact with minors.
The Diocese of Lafayette is committed to insuring a safe environment for all children against sexual abuse.  All clergy, lay employees, and volunteers, whose work/ministry involves contact with children, shall undergo a criminal background check. Also, there shall be documentation of reference checks for all new employees and ALL volunteers.  All clergy, lay employees, and volunteers, whose work/ministry involves contact with children, shall undergo initial education/training in the diocesan safe environment program. 
In addition, each calendar year, they will be required to renew their certification online at virtus.org.
Only those individuals who have completed INITIAL training are eligible for this recertification.  Important Reminder:  Please review the Diocesan Code of Professional Conduct and Reporting Procedures. (These documents are located in My Diocese)
 
Steps to access the Protecting God’s Children Online Awareness Training:
Go to www.virtus.org
Click on “Registration” link highlighted in yellow
Select “Begin the registration process”
Select your organization from the dropdown list – Lafayette, LA (diocese)
Create a username and password (using your email address as your username may assure no duplication)
Please provide the required contact information
Select your organization from the dropdown list – parish/school location (please indicate all that apply)
Select your primary role within the diocese. Please note: If you are a paid teacher, please select Educator
Go to VIRTUS Online, and enter your username and password
Once logged in, you will click on the green circle to begin your online training
This recertification module will take approximately one hour.  If you have to close your session before you are finished, the session will start where you left off when you log back on to the site.
 When you are logged into the system, you have the ability to change your account information by clicking on “Update My Account” and the ability to view the contact information for the diocese by clicking on “Contact my Coordinator.”
 
For further assistance, please go to www.virtus.org and click on “Help”, then click on “VIRTUS Online Help Desk” to send a message to VIRTUS, or you can call 888-847-8870.