PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Before COVID-19, Family Court used a space, on Sundays only, for families mandated to have supervised child visitation, serving up to 100 families a week. It was forced to close due to a lack of staffing, leaving a troubling dilemma for some families who could not afford to pay for a private service.
“Either you put yourself in danger and try to supervise that visit, or the other option is you don’t do the visits. And now you are violating an order from the court,” said Azucena Ugarte, director of the Philadelphia Office of Domestic Violence Strategies.
Service was only available for group supervision, staffed by volunteer court employees with limited training, and was restricted to Sundays. While there were security screenings, the space did not provide separate entrances for custodial and non-custodial parties.
Safety is key in situations where violence is part of the history of the parents involved. And now, it is the crux of the city’s new services.
“Thanks to the advocacy and experience our diverse set of partners brought to the table to address this service gap, we were able to make the case to secure federal funding from the Senate Appropriations Committee to be awarded to the City of Philadelphia to start a supervised custody program,” said Ugarte. “It took a lot of work, but it happened!”
Cherita Reese-Butler oversees therapeutic supervised visitation services in Philadelphia and New Jersey. She said the changes that were made to the program — including guards and separate entrances and exits so custodial and non-custodial parents don’t have to have any contact — are important for everyone’s safety.
“We’re here because custodial, non-custodial parents cannot come to an agreement on visitations on what that needs to look like for the children. So the guards are there for safety precautions — not just for the parents [but] for the children, for the staff, for everyone who is going to be in that area,” said Reese-Butler.
The new WES Health System site also has a large room for group supervised visitations and time slots for both weekday evenings and weekends.
During the first year, the program will be on a referral-only basis, when supervised sessions are part of a custody order from Family Court. The judge will determine the frequency of the sessions, and when WES contacts the parties, they can schedule days and times that work best for them.