As part of an ongoing effort to protect children and youth, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has launched an online training course for all adults who interact with children and youth in their Church assignments. The Church does not tolerate abuse of any kind.
The training was made available today at ProtectingChildren.ChurchofJesusChrist.org for use in North America, with other areas to follow.
In a notice sent to Church leaders in the United States and Canada, the Church asks that all Latter-day Saints with the following assignments complete the training:
- Stake and district presidencies, bishoprics and branch presidencies
- High councilors
- Stake, district, ward, and branch Primary, Young Women, Young Men and Sunday School and Relief Society presidencies; elders quorum presidencies
- Secretaries, teachers, advisers, camp leaders, activity day leaders, music leaders, pianists and others serving in positions in the Primary, Young Women and Young Men organizations
- Teachers of youth Sunday School and seminary classes
Those currently in these positions should complete the training by September 22, 2019. Each person should log in with his or her Church account so completion of training can be recorded.
Those who are called to the above positions in the future should complete the training within one month of being called. They won’t need to retake the training if they change callings or move from one ward to another. However, the training should be retaken every three years.
Leaders registered in Scouting should also complete the required Boy Scouts of America’s Youth Protection training through the remainder of 2019, after which the Church will no longer be participating in BSA.
In addition to those working with children and youth, parents and others are encouraged to complete the training.
The training is designed to increase awareness, highlight policies and identify best practices for supervising and interacting with children and youth. It also helps leaders know how to prevent and respond to abuse.
Learn more:
- ProtectingChildren.ChurchofJesusChrist.org
- Church Newsroom article “Church Launches Protection Training for Leaders of Children and Youth“
- Church News article “ Church Launches New Training for Members Interacting with Children and Youth“
I appreciate this training, but wish it would go further. Parents need to know how to teach their children to be safe online with simple guidelines such as: 1) not “friending”people on social media whom they do not know, and 2) never taking selfies of their bodies, and 3) never texting those photos to others. There should be guidelines set up for texting: to whom, why, when. I have been increasing concerned with the naivete of our parents and teens about these issues, as I read more and more stories in the news of girls being blackmailed by their body photos into doing terrible things. This is a whole new world of threat. A man named Collin Kartchner has some good suggestions which we heard speak a while ago. And Tim Ballard, the founder of OUR also has great suggestions. We need to get on this issue big time
Thanks for these great ideas. We have published many articles on this site with ideas for parents and families. See https://lds365.com/tag/online-safety/
Where can I find the date that I last completed this training using my own dashboard?
I would rather not have to bother the Ward Clerk to look it up for me if it’s available to me via my own login credentials.