By Dena Miller — Coordinator of Events, Interns, and Volunteers at Family and Community Resources
Connections with both parents are so important to the lives and development of children, but some families need a little help to maintain these critical connections. At Family and Community Resources, one of our largest programs is Supervised Visitation, with four locations across the Southshore and Cape. Since May was National Supervised Visitation Awareness Month, let's take a moment as a community to learn more!
Supervised visitation involves a child interacting with their non-custodial parents with a monitor present, observing their interactions. Visits in safe, welcoming settings not only benefit the parents by providing a welcoming space for them to do the difficult work of rebuilding relationships with their children, but produce long-term benefits for children, fostering healthy social and emotional development.
There are many misconceptions about supervised visitation. Here are some of the most common ones FCR's staff encounter, and the truth behind them:
Myth: Only fathers are the visiting parents, ordered by the courts to use the centers
- Fact: Both mothers and fathers can be ordered by courts to see their children in a supervised setting. It simply depends on the family and their circumstances.
Myth: Supervised visitation is a punishment.
- Fact: Supervised visitation is not a penalty, but an opportunity. It is a tool the courts use to help parents rebuild their relationships with their child or children in an environment where additional support, like models of positive parental behaviors and housing assistance, are available to them.
Myth: Families must be in a supervised visitation center for a long time.
- Fact: While creating and maintaining a positive parent-child relationship is a life-long process, families do not need to spend forever in supervised settings. Their time at our center is often temporary – simply a stepping stone on the path to family reunification.
At the end of the day, supervised visits protect children and ensure they have every opportunity to grow into healthy and happy members of our community. FCR is committed to creating a safe, just, and equitable world in which all families have the freedom to thrive. Our visitation services are a prime example of steps we are taking to reach this goal with the current and the next generation of parents and children.
Want to learn more? Visit FCR's website, or the Supervised Visitation Network's website!
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