Continuing Education

Last year the Child Protection Office joined forces with offices throughout the diocese in the diocesan initiative - “Igniting a Culture of Vocations.”  The Safe Environment Continuing Education program that year was Creating a Culture of Healing and Protection: Nurturing Vocation, for it is through living our vocation that we provide the kind of loving relationships that God intended for those we serve.  The saga continues… The 2023 Continuing Education program picks up where we left off in 2022.  Heroic Virtue – Becoming Saints Part 1:  The Theological Virtues examines recent research on the attitudes and behaviors of youth related to Faith, Hope, and Charity and explores how we can best model these virtues for those we serve.  The theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) are more likely “caught” than “taught.”  Young people best learn the theological virtues when they are inspired by the actions of others – when they experience these virtues in relationship.  Your mission - if you choose to accept it - is to intentionally model faith, hope, and love and to bolster these virtues in our youth, shielding them from despair and strengthening them in the face of adverse experiences!  For more information contact your parish Safe Environment Coordinator or the Diocesan Child Protection Office at [email protected] or 308-382-6565.
Handouts
Posters

Faith
Hope
Charity
I Can't.  You Can.

Creating a Culture of Healing and Protection:
Nurturing Vocation
The Universal Call to Love and Communion and Pope Francis' call to join hin in the Vocation of Protector are at the core of our efforts to create a culture of healing and protection for our children and youth.  Underlying both of these important calls is our Universal Call to Holiness - our call to be Saints!  The term saint has become synonymous with perfection in the minds of many in our world today.  From this perspective, sainthood may seem unattainable.  The good news is... God created you for this!   Plain and simply, to be a saint is to be with God.    He calls us to Himself and provides us all that we need, including for some of us, a personal vocation - the primary relationship through which we become who God created us to be.  Imagine what would change if you began to think of your vocation as your part in God's plan to save the world!

Contact your parish or school Safe Environment Coordinator to join a session or contact the Diocese of Grand Island Child Protection Office for more information.  [email protected]

Posters
My Part in God's Plan
Nurturing My Vocation
To Be A Saint...

Some have described the crisis of child abuse in our culture, and especially within our Church, as a crisis of fatherhood.  Clergy who abused or did not protect children and youth did not fulfill their vocational role as spiritual father.  Many families in our world today are missing fathers to follow the example of St. Joseph as protector and guide.  More and more young people find themselves lost in their search for The Father and vulnerable in their search for love and connectedness.  This session examines the role of fathers in protection, resiliency and healing, follows the model of Saint Joseph in fostering Spiritual Fatherhood, and provides strategies to cultivate spiritual fatherhood for all  children.  
For more information contact the Diocesan Child Protection Office at [email protected] or your parish Safe Enviornment Coordinator.