Child Safety

Hawthorn Catholic 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.
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. Read Hawthorn's Code of Conduct here...
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.
Members of the Parish Safeguarding Committee are:
Fr Des Dwyer SJ,
Claire Harrison (Chairperson),
Georgina Docherty,
Maureen Farrell,
Berny Kirwan (Parish Pastoral Manager),
Aleksandra Orsini,
Jacueline Ralph (Parish Business Manager)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne's Safeguarding Unit was established to further enhance and strengthen capacity to safeguard children and vulnerable people across the Archdiocese. See more about the Safeguarding Unit on the Archdiocese's website: melbournecatholic.org/safeguarding
Complaints
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: Safeguarding Unit of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne - phone 03 9926 5630, safeguardingunit@cam.org.au (the Eastern Region Safeguarding officer is Brech Burgess - phone 1300 360 452, Brech.Burgess@cam.org.au )
c) Contact: Fr Des Dwyer SJ – phone 03 8862 4000
d) Parish Child Safeguarding officer - Bernadette Kirwan (phone 03 8862 4020)
e) Contact: Jesuit Provincial's Director of Professional Standards,
Mr Simon Davies - phone 03 9810 7300, professionalstandards@sjasl.org.au

