Supervised Visitation and Family Financial Well‐Being: Broadening Access to Community Services for Low‐Income Parents in the Court System

• Date: 01 April 2014
• Published date: 01 April 2014
• Author: Karen Oehme,Mark Joseph Stern
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12091

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE

SUPERVISED VISITATION AND FAMILY FINANCIAL WELL-BEING:

BROADENING ACCESS TO COMMUNITY SERVICES FOR

LOW-INCOME PARENTS IN THE COURT SYSTEM

Karen Oehme and Mark Joseph Stern

This article describes a federally funded pilot program designed to connect low-income families at supervised visitation (SV)

programs to other community resources to improve their economic well-being. The pilot program established additional

community connections for families in both urban and rural communities. We describe outcomes that suggest that many SV

clients can benefit when SV programs are engaged with multiple community service partnerships. We also recommend that

judges refer families primarily to those supervised visitation programs that can connect low-income families to additional

resources to help address their problems and improve their economic self-sufficiency.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

• practical advice about connecting low-income clients in the court system to community resources,

• information for supervised visitation and other social service programs on how to effectively connect families to

additional services that can assist with economic well-being,

• steps for making the natural connection between single parents and the local child support enforcement offices,

• strategies for connecting families to financial literacy resources, and

• ideas and strategies for social service providers to begin the shift of services to a holistic partnership approach that can

benefit all families who seek support through community programs.

Keywords: Community Social Services Referrals;CourtReferrals;Dependency Cases;Economic/Financial Self-Sufficiency;

Low-Income Families;and Supervised Visitation.

In the last two decades, judges throughout the United States have turned to supervised visitation

programs to help maintain parent–child bonds in complex family court litigation.1A federally funded

pilot program created to assist families affected by the recent economic crisis has demonstrated that

these same visitation programs can also connect parents to local services to improve family and

economic well-being. The findings of the pilot program in Florida, where most families referred to

visitation programs are low-income, has broad implications for supervised visitation programs, social

services, and judges who both shape the local programs and make referrals to them. Part I of this

Article describes supervised visitation, the great recession and the federally-funded pilot program’s

goals in Florida. Part II outlines the client-level data of the study, its findings and the new nationally

applicable replication plan for the project. Part III proposes that judges urge their local supervised

visitation programs—as well as other social services agencies that routinely receive court

referrals—to include services to connect low-income families to agencies that can help them build

financial self-sufficiency.

Correspondence: koehme@fsu.edu; Mark.Stem@slate.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol.55 No. 2, April 2014 282–297

© 2014 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts

I. SUPERVISED VISITATION PROGRAMS, NEEDY CLIENTS,

AND A FEDERAL SPECIAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

For many years, courts have used supervised visitation to provide a safe place for noncustodial

parents to spend parenting time with their children when unsupervised contact may be dangerous or

harmful to the child(ren)2or to the other parent. It is most frequently utilized in cases involving

allegations of child maltreatment, domestic violence,3mental illness, and substance abuse.4Although

supervised visitation programs exist in every state,5Florida has one of the most comprehensive

approaches to the service.6Florida’s visitation programs—numbering more than 70 statewide7—are

housed in a variety of settings: faith-based groups, larger umbrella social services organizations, and

non-profit 501(c)(3) stand-alone programs. The programs take court referrals in cases in which the

children have been removed from the home, and cases in which the child resides with one parent or

relative but can only spend time with the other parent under the supervision of trained monitors.8

Policymakers that help shape these programs in other states have acknowledged the importance of

a program’s ability to link families to community agencies that can help address the problems that

resulted in the court’s referral to the supervised visitation program. These agencies have traditionally

included domestic violence victim assistance and substance abuse counseling centers, but have not

typically included economically linked agencies. For example, the New Hampshire Governor’s

Commission on Domestic Violence Subcommittee on Visitation stated:

Parent Aide supervised visitation providers shall be active members on the local domestic violence

coordinating councils. If there is no local domestic violence council, a formal collaboration should be

formed and maintained between community partners, such as domestic violence programs, batterer

intervention providers, the court, law enforcement, mental health providers,substance abuse providers, and

DCYF, as well as other community members.”9

The Guiding Principle for the federally funded Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe

Exchange Grant Program states that “visitation centers are well positioned to work with the broader

community to identify the needs of families and community members in areas fundamental to safety

and well-being (e.g., domestic violence and legal advocacy, housing, nutrition, income, employment,

education, health, and transportation),”10 but no consistent or thorough tracking of such referrals has

been previously accomplished.

In Florida, supervised visitation program linkages to these community agencies are also part of the

broader framework for supervised visitation programs under the statewide Supervised Visitation

Standards authorized by Florida Statutes 763, and created by a committee statutorily mandated to

create a comprehensive set of standards for Florida’s programs.11 The standards are organized around

four guiding principles. Principle One is that safety is paramount at visitation; Principle Two is that

training is essential for all program staff; Principle Three is that the dignity and diversity of clients

must be respected by staff; and Principle Four is that programs should operate within a coordinated

community network of agencies that seek to address common family problems.12 Principle Four

specifically mandates that supervised visitation programs engage in cross-training and outreach with

local social service agencies, in order to address family problems and dysfunctions.13 However, no

state has tested how such a recommended system of referrals would be accomplished. In addition,

Florida programs have not made a concerted effort to provide connections to families and organiza-

tions that assist them specifically in gaining economic stability.The economic “great recession”14 that

began in 2008, adversely affecting many families revealed this notable gap in economically related

services.

Economic data from 2008 reveal the devastating impact of the recession on families. The number

of unemployed parents in the U.S. increased by 67% during 2009 according to a Brookings Institution

estimate.15 In 2009, approximately 8.1 million children lived with one or twounemployed parents, and

31% of unemployed individuals were parents.16 Unemployment soared to 10.1% in October 2009.

By June, 2012, it had only decreased to 9.5%.17 The poverty rate for children in 2009 was 20.7%

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