Child Safety
Child Protection Guidelines
The parish takes the safety, well-being and inclusion of all children very seriously and has policies and procedures in place to maintain a Child Safe environment.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne's Professional Standards Unit (PSU) was established to further enhance and strengthen capacity to safeguard children and vulnerable people across the Archdiocese. Contact professional.standards@cam.org.au See the Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy
The Australian Jesuit's Policy for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults is:
"Principles, Protocols and Standards of Practice"
If anyone wishes to bring a complaint of abuse against any member of staff, present or past, of a Jesuit ministry, they may do so in any of the following ways:
a) If you believe a crime has been committed, contact the police 'Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team' (SOCIT) (Box Hill team) on 03 8892 3292
or call 000
b) Contact: Professional Standards Unit of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne - phone 03 9926 5630, professional.standards@cam.org.au
c) Contact: Fr Des Dwyer SJ – phone 03 8862 4000
d) Parish Child Safeguarding team - Donna Bosnjak (phone 8862 4021), Bernadette Kirwan (phone 8862 4020)
e) Contact: Jesuit Provincial's Director of Professional Standards,
Mr Simon Davies - phone 03 9810 7300, professionalstandards@sjasl.org.au
Hawthorn Catholic Parish is committed to creating and maintaining a child safe organisation, and has policies and procedures to achieve the Child Safe Standards:
1. Strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety, through effective leadership arrangements
2. A Child Safe Policy or Statement of Commitment to Child Safety
3. A Code of Conduct that establishes clear expectations for appropriate behaviour with children
4. Screening, supervision, training and other human resource practices that reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing personnel
5. Processes for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse
6. Strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse
7. Strategies to promote the participation and empowerment of children.
