Our last report to Classis emphasized the work of the Panel which is one of three areas of responsibilities of the Classis Hamilton Abuse Response Team (CART). We offer a fact-finding panel in the event allegations of abuse are made against present or former church leaders (e.g. ministers, elders, youth leaders, etc.).

This report will emphasize a second area of responsibility - Education. We are available for presentations to congregations to explain the mandate of our team, to assist churches in establishing abuse prevention policies and to hold conferences on abuse prevention.

Since the submission of our last Classis Report, CART has held three meetings and also sponsored a child abuse prevention (child safety) conference. At the first meeting in May, the team decided to develop a PowerPoint presentation that team members can use as a standard presentation in our respective congregations. This presentation is based on resources received from Beth Swagman, CRC Director, Office of Abuse Prevention, and introduces the mandates of the team with emphasis on the work of the Panel. By the time of this Classis meeting, all of these presentations will have been made.

Our second meeting was held in August to go over the PowerPoint presentation prepared by John Benjamins. At this meeting we also finalized the preparations for the September 21, workshop in Hope Church. We prepared the final bulletin announcements and mailings to all the churches in Classis Hamilton and the neighbouring classes.

On September 21, CART and the Office of Abuse Prevention co-sponsored a one day set of workshops on "Child Safety Policy Training". The goals of this training were:

(1) to help churches build an effective child safety policy that reduces the risk of child abuse occurring in a church and
(2) for churches with a child safety policy to review it for assurance that issues of liability and risk have been adequately addressed.

There were 65 registrants representing churches from 5 different classes. It turned out that the need for this conference was great and unfortunately we had to turn away some very late registrations. A show of hands indicated that almost half the participants did not have a child safety policy in their churches and others were not sure how good their policies really were. Beth had an excellent binder filled with practical resources for each participant. Attorney David van der Woerd, who presented a question and answer workshop on the liability and legal aspects of a policy, also handed out some excellent resources that can be used as guides in the development of a child safety policy. At the end of the day, each person could go back to his or her church with enough information to develop a child safety policy geared to their specific church situation.

We are also pleased to report that the conference ended with a net of $55 in the black. A check in that amount has been forwarded to the classis treasurer.

At the end of the conference, CART met with a representative from Classis Huron to assist in the planning of a Spring conference set for March 1, 2003. This one day conference will be held, Lord willing, in the Kitchener CRC and will include a number of workshops on a variety of topics.

Our third meeting was held in November to discuss feedback from the Sept. 21 workshop, the presentations that we have been making to our congregations, and also to discuss our mandate as given to us by Classis Hamilton.

It would be helpful if we had more members. Ideally we would like to see one member from each church in Classis on the team. This would help greatly in dividing up the three areas of responsibility among the members.

We are thankful and encouraged by your continued support of the Classis Hamilton Abuse Response Team and we ask that Classis continue to hold us in your prayers.

Respectively submitted by John Gilson, Chairperson
Classis Abuse Response Team
E-mail: classishamilton@bfree.on.ca