Diocesan Safe Environment Clearances

Saint Isidore the Farmer is blessed with many parishioners sharing their time and talents volunteering in our parish.  All volunteers (ages 18 and older) must be in full diocesan compliance.  (There is no fee for volunteers’ clearances.)

This includes:
*PA State Criminal Clearances (which is obtained during the diocesan registration)
*PA Child Abuse History Clearance
*FBI Clearance (If you have lived in Pennsylvania ten years or longer, with no criminal record, you may sign the FBI Waiver.  If you have not lived in Pennsylvania for ten consecutive years, and/or have a criminal record, you must obtain the FBI fingerprint clearance.)
*Protecting God’s Children training
*Mandated Reporter Training (for those listed in Appendix D, such as catechists, youth leaders, etc.)

The PA State Criminal History, the PA Child Abuse History, and the FBI clearances are valid for five years.  Protecting God’s Children** training is valid for 3 years.
Cindy Parry (St. Isidore’s Safe Environment Coordinator) will contact you, either by email or phone, when your clearances come due.  You will also receive an email from VIRTUS ONLINE when your Protecting God’s Children training comes due.  Once you have completed your updates, it is important to send Cindy copies of any certificates that you receive so they can be recorded and filed.

Contact Cindy Parry at [email protected] if:
   *you wish to volunteer in any of our many ministries.  Cindy can assist you with instructions on obtaining clearances. 
   *you are not sure if you are in compliance.
   *you wish to take “a pause” from volunteering.  Cindy can place your records in the inactive file.  Your records can be reactivated later if you choose to volunteer in the future. 

**Please note:  For the Protecting God’s Children training, there is a trauma sensitive alternative for persons with a history of sexual abuse.  Watching the videos may cause a resurgence of memories that may be detrimental to personal healing.  You can confidentially request a written trauma sensitive version by contacting Laetitia Bridges, Director of Victim Assistance, at 412-456-3093 ext. 3712

Log onto www.virtusonline.org

Click on First Time Registrant

Begin the process, going through each page.  (Volunteers do not need to include their Social Security number.)

Select Organization from the drop-down box – choose Pittsburgh, PA (Diocese)

Insert the Access Code (contact Cindy Parry at [email protected] for the code)

Next page – Create a user ID and password and answer questions (Be sure to save your User ID and password as you will need this in the future)

Next page – Select primary location where you volunteer – choose St. Isidore

Then choose Parish Volunteer

Then choose what you are volunteering for (i.e., fish fry, fundraising, etc.    Do NOT simply choose “volunteer” as that is not accepted.)

(If you volunteer at another parish, add that parish also where prompted.  This will add that parish as a secondary parish.)

Download and read each of the three booklets (You must click on the highlight blue “download” link to proceed) – Then click that you read it, then insert your name and date.

You will do this for all three booklets.

Then answer yes/no questions (2 on each page)

Look through Mandated Reporter list – if you don’t fall into any of the categories, click NO

You will automatically be returned to the Virtus Online page.

Complete the 2 links (in red) from the center box.
   ---click on PA State Child Abuse History clearance and complete

When asked for a Keystone ID and password, you may create anything you wish following their guidelines.  If you have previously logged onto the Commonwealth of PA site for any reason, in the past, and cannot remember your ID or password, you may contact CWIS SUPPORT CENTER at 1-877-343-0494  

   ---For your FBI clearance, if you have lived in Pennsylvania for 10 years or more, with no criminal record, you can click on FBI clearance (waiver) and download and sign and date.  Send copy of this to Cindy

However, if you have not lived in Pennsylvania for at least 10 consecutive years, and/or have a criminal record, you will need to obtain an FBI fingerprint clearance.  Log onto    https://uenroll.identogo.com/ and use the code   1KG6ZJ   You must preregister before going for fingerprinting.  Also, you must pay online, using your credit card; however, the parish will reimburse you if you submit your receipt to the parish.

Once your PA State Criminal clearances are approved by the diocese, you will receive an email to complete the Protecting God’s Children training. 
To do so, click on www.virtusonline.org, insert your user ID and password, then click on the highlighted training course.  When you complete this training, send Cindy Parry ([email protected]) an email stating you completed the training.

IMPORTANT:  Please send Cindy Parry a copy of any certificate/clearance/document that you received and/or completed.  These will be documented on the diocesan database and filed at the parish.

You can mail them to:  St. Isidore the Farmer Parish, Att: Cindy Parry, 103 Church Road, Imperial, PA  15126 or you can “scan and email” copies to Cindy.

Any questions, please contact Cindy Parry at    [email protected]
See https://www.virtusonline.org/virtus/15497/instructions-parish-volunteer.pdf for more detailed information on how to obtain clearance.