At a recent supervised visitation at Hope Unlimited, staff encountered an upset parent.
It happens sometimes. The Child Visitation Center brings together children with parents or other relatives in a secure, supervised setting. Such visitations may be needed because of a difficult divorce, an abusive situation, a parent with a substance abuse problem or maybe just because of a situation where the parent has never been part of the child?s life before.
In this instance, the parent was isolated in a secured area. The child never saw the parent?s meltdown. There was no risk that the parent might try to leave with the child. Three locked doors separated the child visitation center from the exit.
That?s the biggest advantage of the new Hope Unlimited building at 406 N. Buckeye St., Dorothy Sparks, executive director, said. The center moved in September from its previous location downtown.
?It?s a much more secure building. We have a security system and we?re not on the square with all those windows,? Sparks said. ?We were having a problem with space and confidentiality was becoming an issue.?
Hope Unlimited provides a variety of services to help those in abusive or violent relationships, and to help those who have suffered from sexual abuse.
?We live in a small rural area where clients do know one another. Clients don?t want to run into someone they know if they?re not ready to talk about their circumstances,? Sparks said.
THE BIGGEST advantage to the new building is providing more space for children?s services.
The new space includes dedicated rooms for the Child Advocacy Center and the Child Visitation Center.
The Child Advocacy Center brings together a multi-disciplinary team including law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health workers, the Department of Child and Family Services, and Hope Unlimited staf, who meet when a report is made of physical or sexual abuse of a child. A trained professional interviews the child in a comfortable room, as members of the team watch from a nearby room. The interview is recorded.
Donita Garner works for Hope Unlimited as the Child Advocacy Center coordinator, seeing that children feel safe and comfortable. Although she is trained for the interview process, it typically is conducted by someone else. Garner said it?s important to build a rapport to encourage the child to communicate, without leading them in one direction or another. How long the interview takes depends on things such as the child?s maturity and verbal skills. An interview with a very young child may take just 10 minutes, while an interview with a teenager could last an hour.
Sheila Newman works with parents or guardians, explaining the process, helping them with paperwork and answering their questions while the child is interviewed.
?Not every case is prosecuted, so we all come together to try to figure out what is best for the child,? Garner explained.
Garner told of a story where a young child tied a piece of yarn to his wrist, with the other end tied to the parent?s wrist so the child would ?feel attached? even while separated during the interview.
?Kids need to feel safe, and then they can tell their story,? Garner said.
