The Center works with the Child Protection Unit of Logan County Services to provide a portion of their court-order supervised visits with children who have been in a domestic violence situation.

“We work as community partners of Social Services,” said Karen Torres, executive director. “We can provide varied hours and times for supervised visits, which may allow for more and frequents visits as well. Sometimes we can provide weekend and evening visits if Child Protection is unable to do so.”

The Center does not facilitate all the supervised visits of Social Services and may not facilitate all the visits for one particular family, according to Torres.

A caseworker for Social Services will provide a court order for supervised visits to the Center and the treatment plan comes from Child Protective Services, Torres said.

The Center is a neutral area, according to Torres.

“We separate the parents in time and space for the visits,” she said. “The parents never see each other on our property.”

The Center also offers a parenting class for men, “Caring Dads.” It is a voluntary attendance class.

“The class helps the dads to think about some behaviors that may foster domestic violence,” Torres said. “The class is a preventative tool as well.”

“We want the children to know us as the safe people and if they ever feel unsafe, they can come to us or let us know,” she said.

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