Safe Visitation program providing protection and support for families in Winona and around southeast Minnesota

WINONA, Minn. – Thanks to Family & Children’s Center’s Safe Visitation program, children are protected during supervised visits for families who need support and/or need to learn how to best care for their children.

Maria (not her given name) and her son came to Family & Children’s Center (FCC) as a referral from a county’s child protection due to neglect of her infant who was six-months-old.  A new immigrant, without the support of her family who live in another country, Maria also had a language barrier.

Her son, born prematurely, required special care at birth. The father of her child left her to deal with these challenges after the baby was born. Due to the fact the baby was not thriving, child protective services referred her to FCC.

According to Danielle Swedberg, FCC Program Coordinator, “When staff first met Maria, her son weighed just 11 pounds and was struggling. Her son was living with her full time while the county still had custody and several months ago, her son celebrated his first birthday.”

“I wanted to care for my son, but I just didn’t know what to do,” said Maria. “I am so happy Family & Children’s Center helped me learn how to care for my son. I will finish school soon and am thankful to be able to start a job to help me care for my son.”

With the help of FCC’s Safe Visitation program, check-ins have moved to only once per week, and the case has now closed.  Maria and her son are very happy, healthy, and progressing.

In 2022, FCC served 70 children and 66 adults through its Safe Visitation program. FCC staff provided 1,772 visits. Currently, the program provides 45 to 70 visits per week depending on the case load. For county cases, the social workers set duration and frequency, and for grant-based clients, the families typically make these decisions.

Safe Visitation and Tracking are important programs with Winona’s FCC that serve the needs of Winona County and other counties as needed.

According to Karrie Hahn, Director of Minnesota Programs at FCC, “Safe visitation provides county-based services where visits are provided after a referral from Child Protective Services through individual counties.

“FCC provides a wide range of visits from fully-supervised visits, where the child does not leave the supervision of the FCC monitor, to simple check-ins where the child is living with their family but still under the custody of child protection,” says Hahn. “The program is managed by a supervisor, administrative assistant, and 14 trained monitors.”

Safe Visitation staff provide all transportation to and from visits. Visits take place at FCC, in the community, or in the client’s home based on what stage they are in their case. Some families in the program are served for more than a year and services are provided often multiple times per week for several hours at a time. The purpose of this program is to provide information to help social workers in their quest to seek the reunification of families.

FCC also provides grant-based services which are paid predominantly through a grant from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) which provides services to those experiencing domestic violence. Supervised visits through this program mostly occur at FCC and provide staggered arrival and departure times for the families, so they are not required to have contact with each other.

This service can be provided in people’s homes, but only after they have been with the agency for a long time. Safe exchanges provide people with a custody order or a restraining order to have a safe neutral place to exchange their children for visits. These mostly occur at FCC but occasionally happen in the community as well. The purpose of this program is to provide a safe environment for families to do visits and exchanges. Some of our clients have been with this program for multiple years.

In addition, FCC offers the Tracking Program in Winona. The Tracking Program provides social workers with information on chemical dependency (urine analysis), curfew checks, and face-to-face checks for juveniles going through the court system.

FCC also serves a wide range of clients of all ages, backgrounds, races, cultures, and people living with disabilities. The services are necessary to provide a safe space for kids to visit with their parents to preserve and hopefully strengthen family relationships.

For more information, call Danielle Swedberg, Safe Visitation Supervisor, at 608-785-0001 ext. 2282.

Learn more about the Safe Visitation program here.