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Required training for all youth who participate in Religious Education and Catholic Schools.
Program Overview Video For Parents (Spanish-coming soon!)
Letter from Bishop David J. Malloy
Parent Resources
1. Program Overview (Spanish)
2. Parent Guide (Spanish)
3. Opt-out-form (Spanish)
Additional Free Resources
NetSmartz Kids – Online Safety Videos for students Elementary -> High School
NetSmartz Kids – Games
KidSmartz – Safety Videos & Resources
Coordinators: Overview of Empowering God’s Children Training Responsibilities
*(Please note, Schools are required to complete the training the 3rd week of October and submit totals by the following Friday)
Where do I find the Lesson Materials?
Log into your Virtus Online Account and click on the Educators tab
Virtus Online Website
Need a new hard copy of the DVD?
Order one directly from Virtus here:
Power2Protect 2.0 DVD Order Form
Parents may opt to train their child at home on the materials.
Virtus now has Parent-Specific Lesson Plans posted for parents who choose to teach the materials at home or your family faith formation programs! Click on the Educators tab and look on the left in green to locate those Lesson Plans & the Acknowledgement Form. Parents MUST return the Parent Trained Acknowledgement Form to be counted as trained in your reporting totals. If the form is not returned, the student is marked as absent.
Parent Trained Acknowledgement Form (Spanish)
Notifying your Parents
You must notify the parents of when the training will take place and you will show and/or provide the parents with the Program Overview Video For Parents (Spanish-coming soon!) that explains the program. You will also provide them with the link to this webpage and ask them click view the FOR PARENTS section where the parents resources can be found that are described in the video they have watched.
Communication Template:
The Diocese of Rockford requires an annual training in Empowering God’s Children. The training will take place on (insert date) for (insert parish/school name).
Please watch the included short video explaining the program and visit the FOR PARENTS section on the webpage provided to obtain the parent resources mentioned in the video. This webpage also includes all lesson videos shown to the students if you would like to review the lessons videos themselves. Please reach out to (name) at (phone/email) if you have any questions about the program itself or training your child at home. If you would prefer to have your child opt-out of the training, and not participate, please fill out the opt-out from on the webpage and return a printed copy to (name/location) by (date).
Program Overview Video for Parents: https://youtu.be/WZ1zM9BuHM0
Empowering God’s Children Webpage: https://www.rockforddiocese.org/safe-environment/virtus
Attendance & Submitting Totals
Attendance is required for this training. You may have your instructor complete this: Instructor’s Attendance Training Record and submit it to you following the training of their students.
You, as the coordinator can then complete this: Program Coordinator Combined Totals Report to make submitting your totals in the Virtus system easier.
IMPORTANT
Parish & School will submit separate training totals.
English & Spanish will submit totals together as 1 grand total.
You are submitting ONE total for each of the following:
Parishes: Training must be completed by February 1st annually and totals submitted by February 15th
Schools: Training must be completed the 3rd week of October annually and totals submitted by 4th Friday of October
Submitting EGC Training Totals Video
Individuals Teaching the Lessons (Lesson Leader Orientation Training in Virtus)
Those who will be facilitating training of students in the Empowering God’s Children Program are required to complete an online training module, within their Virtus online account, annually. Lesson Leaders will not be permitted to facilitate the training of students unless this requirement has been met.
Preschool Lesson Books
