In an effort to guard the safety of Vulnerable Persons under the care of the Archdiocese, all Church Personnel, ages 18 and older, will be required to sumbit a completed Criminal Background Check Form as well as a complete set of fingerprints so as to facilitate a criminal background investigation.

Eligibility for employment, volunteer work, or ministry will be contingent and conditioned upon a satisfactory background investigation. This background investigation will be updated every five years. This policy applies even if an individual has been cleared through an FBI or FDLE check conducted by their employer or another entity.

Volunteers under the age of 18 are not allowed to have unsupervised access to children, youth or vulnerable adults. This includes youth ministers, coaches, mentors, scout leaders, babysitters, etc.

These individuals who may assist with children, youth and vulnerable adults must be supervised by a volunteer or employee who has been Virtus trained and has successfully completed a Level 2 Background Check. Because volunteers under the age of 18 are not allowed to have unsupervised access to children, youth or vulnerable adults, they are not screened for criminal history. Virtus training for volunteers under the age of 18 is optional.

All Church Personnel, including applicants offered a position, independent contractors and volunteers working with Vulnerable Persons are required to successfully complete safe environment training through the Virtus program. For new Church Personnel, Virtus training must be completed within 45 days of hire.

Virtus Training

Virtus training sessions run approximately three hours long. Due to the subject matter, children are not allowed in the sessions. Participants will not be allowed to enter if arriving late, nor will their attendance be counted if they leave early. To register for a Virtus "Protecting God's Children for Adults" session, log in to www.virtusonline.org and click on "first time registrant" located on the left hand side of the page. Next choose Archdiocese of Miami as the "organization" and then view a list of sessions available or start the registration process. Follow the prompts.

Virtus Training Reports

For volunteers who have Virtus accounts but need to show verification their account is up to date, they can print out their Training Report. The following are instructions.

• Log into your Virtus account at www.virtus.org by entering your user id and password.
• Click on the green Training tab at the top of the page.
• Click on Training Compliance in the green column to the left.
• Click on Training Report.
• Then click on the printer icon found in the upper right- hand side of the page where you see your name and Archdiocese of Miami, FL.

This page is dated and indicates both live training record and the number of featured, read and missed bulletins.

For additional information, please contact the Church Office at (954) 432-0206.