Statement of Commitment to Child Safety

The Good Shepherd Parish is committed to child safety.

We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers.

We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.

We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.

We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

Our Parish is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.

Our Parish has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers.

Our Parish is committed to regularly training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks. This occurs not less than annually following within a month of the Annual General Meeting.

We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to providing a safe environment for children with a disability, the cultural safety of children from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds and the cultural safety of Aboriginal children.

We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments, including the Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Procedures of The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000.