| Previous page Preschool, Day Care Conference More than 340 women attended the annual Preschool and Day Care Conference Aug. 15 at Calvary UMC in Annapolis. The daylong training session was sponsored by the Baltimore-Washington Conference Committee on Local Church Christian Education. Clarissa Willis, from East Tennessee State University, was the keynote speaker. Willis encouraged the child care directors and teachers to open all the doors you can for children. A specialist in brain research, she told the audience that the foundations of peoples moral development is essentially complete by age 5. That makes your responsibility very dramatic when it comes to the children in your care, Willis said. In addition to Willis address, participants took two of 17 workshops offered on a variety of topics. Melissa Lauber | Church preschools provide safe haven By David E. Bohnert UMConnection Correspondent In the wake of recently publicized clergy sexual misconduct in the Roman Catholic Church, keeping children safe from predators and other forms of child abuse is uppermost in the minds of directors and staff members of child care programs in United Methodist churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Prevention is the only way we can really protect the children. If we dont prevent it (abuse), we are involved in healing for children, families, staff members, and church members, said the Rev. Robert O. Burdette. Burdette is director of Kairos Pastoral Care Center, minister of education at Mt. Zion UMC in Highland, and a professor of family studies at the University of Maryland. The level of attention to issues of child safety on the part of directors of preschool programs is commendable, said Burdette. He recommends that church council or administrative board members and members of congregations provide support to the preschool staff by receiving training in prevention and detection of child abuse. Such training helps protect the church family from the emotional, legal and financial toll of child abuse, he said. According to Janice Llewellyn, director of the Humpty-Dumpty Learning Center, a child care program at Centre Street UMC in Cumberland, People who are in this business are always alert. They keep their eyes open. They observe role play and conversation of the children. This can be very helpful. Llewellyn said children receive instruction in body awareness annually, and staff members participate in an orientation program at the beginning of the year to create awareness of child abuse issues and procedures for reporting suspected child abuse as required by Maryland state law. Parents have to feel that their kids are safe, she said, adding that staff members are diligent in communicating curriculum and activities to the parents of the children. The Milford Mill UMC Child Development Center will celebrate 50 years of child care services next year, said Pat Pittinger, director. The program has had no critical incidents and minimal staff turnover; the director must make sure the staff members are where they should be; and two staff members must be in each classroom at all times, she said. We have an open door policy. We invite parents to come in anytime they wish to visit, participate in the activities, volunteer or ask questions if they are concerned, Pittinger said. A week-long sexual abuse awareness program which includes such topics as good touch, bad touch, not keeping secrets, and proper names for private body parts is taught each year in February and reviewed at the end of the year, Pittinger said. Pauline Reisberg, director of the Wards Chapel UMC Preschool Program in Randallstown, said, Our parents come into the building to drop children off and into the building to pick them up. Parents sign them in and out. Reisberg relies on interviews, careful checking of references and the criminal background check required by Maryland law as she hires employees. All people who work with children in any capacity, even once, in any United Methodist Church or church-sponsored agency must sign a sexual abuse disclosure form mandated by policy of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, according to the Rev. W. Kenneth Lyons Jr., superintendent of the Cumberland-Hagerstown district. All the churches are in compliance with the policy about signing the sexual misconduct form, he said, adding that those people who feel uncomfortable signing the form are not involved in any capacity with children or youth. There are more than 200 child care programs in United Methodist churches across the conference, according to the Rev. Vivian McCarthy, associate council director. |
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