Editor's note: This article was originally featured July 12, 2004, on the VIRTUS@ Online website.

Create an atmosphere of "openness."

One of the warning signs of someone who is a potential risk to children is someone who arranges to be alone with children in situations and circumstances where nobody can monitor the interactions. Creating an environment where we assure that our interactions with children occur in an atmosphere of openness supports our commitment to safe environments. It also ensures our personal reputation as people who genuinely care about children.

A number of great ideas have emerged that support this aspect of monitoring programs. Among them are the following:

Replace all classroom (and reconciliation room) doors with solid glass doors. Allowing art and decoration on the bottom half of the door in classrooms can solve concerns about activities in the hallway being a distraction for children.

Invite a group of participants to walk through the property and buildings to look for areas where a perpetrator might be able to isolate a child from other people. One team at a local parish found a number of problem areas that required only minimal expense to correct. For example:

Motion sensitive lights were installed in some areas.

Hedges were either transplanted to other areas or removed altogether because they were planted too far away from the buildings (i.e., there was room between the hedge and building for someone to seclude a child).

Locks were changed on rooms that were consistently not being used. To ensure that these rooms remained locked, the only existing copies of the new keys were kept inside a secured lock box. Meanwhile, the master key for other rooms in the building would not open these specific doors.

New doors with secure locks were installed on outdoor storage buildings.

Playground equipment was repaired and benches for parents and other caring adults were installed nearby --- to encourage parent supervision of their children's activities.

Install a computerized locking system on the main entrances to church facilities. While this system may be more expensive than others, the system identifies and creates a record of everyone who enters and leaves the building outside of regular business hours.

At the end of Religious Education, youth group meetings or any other activity involving children or young people, have the next to last parent arriving to pick up his/her child stay with the group leader until the last child's parent arrives. This will assure that there are two adults present at all times without having to find additional volunteers.

Create a form for use in reviewing all programs prior to implementation and establish a review process that includes parishioners and staff. This process addresses a number of concerns that might arise from time to time such as:

The ratio of adults to children and young people participating in a program.

The mission or purpose of an organization requesting permission to publish information in the bulletin or to promote programs on church grounds.

The exact needs of an organization requesting to use church property for an event (internal and external organizations).

The need to effectively manage scheduling to assure that adequate adult supervision is present anytime there are children in the building --- regardless of which organization is using the facilities at any particular time.

These are just a few of the new ideas arising from the duty to find creative, inventive ways to create safe environments for our children. If we keep an open mind when we view activities designed to better protect children, we let everyone know of our genuine concern for children --- and we fulfill on our commitment to create safe environments in a positive and proactive way.

Sharon Womack Doty is a consultant to the VIRTUS@ Programs. This article is the copyrighted property of The National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc. (Copyright @ 1999-2007 by The National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc., all rights reserved), and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about VIRTUS@ Online or other VIRTUS services, visit www.virtus.org or call (888) 847-8870.