Supervised Visitation Program - Keeping Families Connected
By Janne Sleeper, Supervised Visitation Program Manager
“…This is about the kids and their safety and nothing else.”
Imagine not being able to hug your child or hear about their day at school. Imagine being a child, wanting your dad to read you a story, or to tell your mom about the goal you scored in soccer. Imagine recovering from domestic violence, fearing contact with your ex, but still wanting your child to have a connection to their other parent. Many, many families in Whatcom County face this reality.
The WDRC Supervised Visitation Program keeps these Whatcom County families connected.
Sometimes in the process of a family going separate ways, the court will order supervised visits for one of the parents. This means that children see that parent in the presence of a visit supervisor at our center in Bellingham.
Many things bring families to this point. It may be domestic violence, mental health struggles, substance abuse issues. But without our program, these children would have no contact with the non-custodial parent.
“This program has taken an impossible situation and neutralized the interactions between my child and her visiting parent. I am so grateful that they have created a safe space where ‘the kids are in charge.”
These visits are free from the pressures of parenting – financial strife, conflict, trouble at work. For the hour a week they spend at our center, these children and their visiting parents can just be – enjoying each other, playing games, chatting, and eating. In other words, the things families do together. And We’re sprucing up the center with new games, pillows for parents of young ones who spend most of the visit on the floor, and a bright new rug for one of the rooms.
Our program is growing and expanding. We have doubled our volunteer crew of visit supervisors, and are offering more visit times per day, giving parents more options when participating in the program. In 2019, our Volunteers completed nearly half of the 381 hours of visits we supervised.
It is the strength of our volunteer base that allows us to continue building the program. With their dedication and consistency, we can offer more families the time they need. It allows staff to spend time developing the program, talking to new families and keeping our waiting list to a minimum.
In December 2019 we received the Chuckanut Health Foundation grant, which allows us to increase our volunteer recruitment efforts and provide valuable in service trainings. Through these trainings we solidify our team, our goals, and help each other navigate difficult situations and keep the children in our program safe.
We are currently serving 21 families in visits four days a week. Each month we add more families to our list.
It’s not difficult to feel the satisfaction of a job well done when you see the tearful reunion of a father and his infant daughter, or the stories that older children bring to parents – barely able to make it into the visit room before starting in. And the gratitude from residential parents who weekly tell us how much they appreciate this service summed up in one direct quote, “The WDRC supervised visit program has created a safe place where our children can visit their father and maintain a parental relationship with safe boundaries.”