A number of people from Ellon Parish Church were joined by members of other churches in Gordon Presbytery in Child Protection Training. For most, it was their first workshop but a few folk were there on a refresher. There was a lot of material to get through on one afternoon and a good deal of experiences shared. It was a relief and encouraging to learn that provided guidelines are in place and correct procedures followed, the ‘common sense’ approach is recommended.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding- A Message from Ellon Parish Church of Scotland Safeguarding Co-ordinator
As Child Protection Co-ordinator for Ellon Parish Church of Scotland, I am looking into the possibility of having EPC included in the Training Programme that is run by the Church of Scotland Safeguarding Office in Edinburgh.
I would be interested to note if there are any members of the church or church organisations who would be looking towards either undertaking training or refresher training on Child Protection issues, particularly working with the young and the vulnerable.
If we can generate enough interest I would get in touch with the appropriate people to see if we can have Ellon included in the programme to allow for this training to become a regular part of EPC.
If anyone is interested in the above, please contact Ann Gammack (01358 720606). Below we provide further information from the Church of Scotland.
Introduction
The Church of Scotland Safeguarding Office (Safeguarding Office) is the nucleus of an extensive national and international network of volunteer trainers, contact persons and coordinators, all working to protect those most vulnerable in our congregations. This is achieved by advising on safe recruitment, facilitating training and supporting congregations and presbyteries with problems and issues as they arise. Church of Scotland Remit
The Safeguarding Office, which developed from the Church's Child Protection Unit, plays a major part in the growing and on-going work of child protection training and assisting those who work in outreach with children.
"It is the responsibility of each individual within the fellowship of the Church to prevent the physical, sexual or emotional abuse of children and young people..." taken from the policy statement
of the 1997 General Assembly
The Safeguarding Office exists to:
continue the development of the Church of Scotland's policy and procedure on child protection;
coordinate the development of a system of national registration of voluntary workers;
recruit, train and support a team of voluntary trainers in child protection across Scotland;
facilitate, through the training network, training in child protection for volunteer workers and coordinators in congregation;
develop resources relating to child protection;
provide support, advice and guidance to congregations; and
liaise with other church denominations, para-church bodies and other voluntary organisations.
Safeguarding Office Resources
The following are taken from the Church of Scotland Safeguarding Extranet and will be useful to anyone interested in the area of child protection, not just office bearers, Church staff and those in the ministries:
Resources on this page are available to download in Word [.doc], rich text [.rtf] and text only [.txt] formats. Image heavy documents are provided in [.pdf] format. To view [.pdf] files, you will need Acrobat Reader. This is available free by clicking here.
How to Drug Proof Your Kids®
How do you get informed about drugs so that you know as much as your kids?
How do you help when they go off to academy and have 10 different teachers and a whole load of new friends that you’ve never met?
What is distinctive about cannabis ash?
Where can you advise a friend to get help if there is drug use in their family?
Just the mention of the word drugs can strike fear into the hearts of many parents. Mums and dads often believe their children know more about the issue than they do! They worry that there is nothing they can do to influence the choices their children make when it comes to drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Perhaps that's you or someone you know.How to Drug Proof Your Kids(DPYK for short) is here to help.
DPYK gives ideas and inspiration on how to be effective in encouraging and supporting your children through their teenage years, and informs and equips parents with information about drugs in our society today.
DPYK is an education, prevention and intervention programme developed by the national charity Care for the Family, in association with Hope UK, specialists in drugs education. See DPYK Web Site for more information.
Ellon CSN (Community Schools’ Network) and Grampian Police and support DPYK.
Parents who have taken the course say:
"Made me think more about my relationship with my daughter than I had done before."
"Very useful - doesn't matter how old your children are."
"I now feel more knowledgeable about drugs and hopefully will be able to talk to my children openly about them"
There are three courses planned for the Ellon Area in 2010:
Wed: 24th Feb – 31st March - Ellon Kirk Centre Mon: 10th May – 14th June - Foveran Church Hall, Newburgh Main Street. Tues: 31st Aug – 5th Oct - Ellon Academy
Session times: 7.30-9.30pm, each course runs for 6weeks.
Cost: £15 for 6 weeks (includes workbook)
Presenters: Dr Tricia Kiehlmann (GP) and Mrs Elaine Adamson (teacher)
In the first year of Ellon Parish Church being registered on Easyfundraising over £120 has been raised for EPC with only 10 registered users. Think how much could be raised if everyone that buys goods online goes through the site.
If you book flights/hotels/music and clothes shopping the list is endless...............
If so you could be raising funds for Ellon Parish Church at the same time with no extra cost to you.
Easyfundraising is a shopping directory listing some of your favourite online stores, including Argos, Next, Amazon, Debenhams, John Lewis, Toys R Us, HMV and over 600 other top name stores. Whenever you shop with any one of them using the links provided on the easyfundraising site, you'll generate a free donation for us of up to 15% of the purchase price every time! It really is that simple!
It's completely FREE to register and you won't pay a penny more for your shopping when you use the easyfundraising site. In fact you can even SAVE MONEY as many retailers give discounts, special offers and even 'e-vouchers' exclusive to easyfundraising.
You can shop for holidays, flights, electronics, mobile phones, computing equipment, food, wine, pet supplies, finance, insurance and much more - and every purchase you make will raise funds for us at absolutely no cost to you!
and use easyfundraising every time you shop online.
Easysearch
You can also raise funds for us every time you search the Web - with easysearch, a search engine with a difference!
When you search with easysearch, you'll raise funds for us with every search you make! Make just 10 searches a day with easysearch instead of Google or any other search engine and you could raise around £20 a year - or more - for us. It's that easy!
What's more, easysearch combines the strengths of several search engines together - Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com and many more - making it a 'super' search engine! easysearch tracks down the most relevant and accurate results from across the Web, which means you'll find what you are looking for quickly and easily every time - in one 'easy' search.
Your unique website addresses are the links to your organisation's personalised easyfundraising and easysearch pages. Your unique links are:
If you require any more information feel free to ask Lara , Donna or Karen (Chatroom Leaders), you could raise around £20 a year - or more - for us. It's that easy!
What's more, easysearch combines the strengths of several search engines together - Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com and many more - making it a 'super' search engine! easysearch tracks down the most relevant and accurate results from across the Web, which means you'll find what you are looking for quickly and easily every time - in one 'easy' search.
Please set our unique easysearch page -
as your homepage and use it every time you search the Web.
Your unique website addresses are the links to your organisation's personalised easyfundraising and easysearch pages. Your unique links are:
Safeguarding Best Practice 
Safeguarding- A Message from Ellon Parish Church of Scotland Safeguarding Co-ordinator
