Safe Sanctuaries Training for Pastors, church staff, and volunteers is required every five (5) years.

MinistrySafe-long

Online Training for Safe Sanctuaries

Online training is to provide for greater consistency of training and the ability to better track background clearances. Our current online training platform is MinistrySafe.

MinistrySafe was created by legal professionals who are sexual abuse experts. After decades of litigating sexual abuse cases, Gregory Love and Kimberlee Norris founded MinistrySafe to help ministries meet legal standards of care and reduce the risk of sexual abuse. Used by several other United Methodist Conferences across the country, MinistrySafe trains 25,000-30,000 people each month—live and online. Their mission is to prevent child sexual abuse in ministry contexts.

If you have any problems accessing your church’s MinistrySafe account, please email safesanctuaries@susumc.org or call 717-766-7441 and our staff can help you.


Thank you for putting children, youth, and vulnerable adults first!

MinistrySafe Resource Links

FAQs

Who is Ministry Safe?

Step-by-Step Guide

MinistrySafe Webinar

 

 

CEU’s for MinistrySafe Online Training

After viewing the Sexual Abuse Awareness Training videos and completing the quiz via MinistrySafe,
you may complete the form below to receive 0.25 CEU’s.

CEU Application & Reflection of Learnings for MinistrySafe Online Training (0.25 CEU's)

In 2014, the Pennsylvania Legislature enacted sweeping changes to the Child Protective Services Law (“CPSL”), including but not limited to expansion of mandated reporters, expansion of individuals subject to required background clearances from the Pennsylvania State Police, Department of Human Services and the FBI, expansion of the frequency of the required background clearances and imposition of significant criminal penalties for noncompliance with CPSL requirements. The CPSL was further amended on July 1, 2015 with the enactment of Act 15.  The following Compliance Notification is intended to provide general guidance and related information to facilitate good faith compliance with the CPSL, as amended.

Compliance Notification - Child Protective Services Law 

If you have any questions, please contact the Conference Office at 717-766-7441
or email safesanctuaries@susumc.org

If you are contacted by the press, please direct them to the Conference Director of Communications at 717-766-7441 or media@susumc.org.

Clearances

Conference Policies, and Procedures

Susquehanna Conference Safe Sanctuaries Policies

Sample Documents

Boundaries Training
For Clergy, CLM and Laity Assigned to a church

ATTENTION ALL CLERGY:
Compliance with PA Law and Conference Requirements for Protecting Children and Vulnerable Adults

This is a reminder that by PA Law, all clergy, church employees and volunteers who work with children MUST have clearances completed every 5 years. Failure to do so is breaking the law. See above for links to complete clearances. It is also required by our Conference to complete the Ministry Safe shown above.

Clergy and those serving as pastoral leaders are required to take Boundaries Training every 4 years. If your last Boundaries class was prior to 2019 you are NOT in compliance.

There will be an in-person training held in every District in the coming months. This information will be advertised conference-wide. There are currently no options other than the training offered by the conference.

 - Marian Hartman, Assistant to BoOM, Boundaries Trainer

Upcoming Trainings

If you have previously taken Boundaries and need to take a class to renew your training there are now two online options from the Lewis Center for Learning.
These can be found at https://www.lewisonlinelearning.org/  - the courses that will satisfy your Boundaries requirement are either "Maintaining Boundaries in a Digital Age" or "Understanding Clergy Sexual Ethics".

These courses cost $49 and are at your expense.  There is no "group code" to use when you register.