Protecting God's Children
Our children are the most important gifts God has entrusted to us. Therefore, a volunteer at St. Michael parish and school must submit a criminal background check form to the Criminal Background Check Coordinator and participate in one of the "Protecting God’s Children" workshop offered by the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Volunteer Requirements
1. Criminal Background Check
A criminal background check must be completed before a person can volunteer in any capacity with children in the parish. Criminal background checks can be submitted to Theresa Liptak through the school office before volunteering in any capacity with children in the parish. Click for a Criminal Background Check form.
Volunteers are also required to participate in a Protecting God's Children workshop. The Archdiocese of Detroit mandates that the workshop be attended within one year of the volunteer filing for a background check. If you filed a background check form last year, but have not attended a workshop, please be aware that you will not be able to volunteer in any activity involving children or the elderly (this includes driving on field trips).
2. Protecting God's Children Workshops
Workshops are offered all year. St. Michael's in-person workshops are typically held in the fall. You can also register to attend another parish's Protecting God's Children workshop to receive credit.
To register for a workshop, please visit Virtus Online and select Detroit, MI (Archdiocese) in the drop-down menu for a list of upcoming sessions.
To receive credit for the workshop, participants must register at www.virtus.org/virtus/ . A copy of your certificate of completion must be sent to the school office or rectory marked to the attention of "Theresa Liptak".
*NEW* The Archdiocese of Detroit has mandated a newly updated training course for Protecting God’s Children for any volunteer who received their initial training prior to 2020. All volunteers must be up-to-date with this training in order to volunteer. If you need to take this training (which is done online and lasts about 2 hours), please complete it and send your printed certificate to Mrs. Liptak as soon as you can. http://virtusonline.org/virtus/
- Volunteers will need to log into www.virtusonline.org. If you do not remember your login id, please try your name or email address - used when you first took the class. Once you are logged in, there is a menu option to update your account and you should look at this information and verify it is correct. If you need to reset your password, a reset will be sent to the email used when you created your account.
- Click on RECERTIFICATION. Options will appear for your online refresher course (Protecting God's Children Online Awareness Session 4.0 with Vulnerable Adults Training 2.0 )