Arizona's Child Abuse InfoCenter

At the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center

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Parent Education During Supervised Visitation

Overview of Project VITAL: Parent Education During Supervised Visitation

Visits among children in state custody and their parents are important for the maintenance of family ties, as well as the assessment of parents' behaviors. Supervised visitation is also an ideal time to boost parenting skills while encouraging positive behaviors and a fun environment during the limited time together. A unique parenting curriculum, "VITAL", was developed by Arizona's Child Abuse InfoCenter for use during child protective services visits and is applicable to other child/parent visits, as well.

Visitation programs around the country use the Project VITAL model. One example is a program in Port Orchard, Washington.

The Importance of Visitation in CPS Cases

Visitation Articles

• Conducting Parent-Child Visits [pdf]*
• Making Visits Better: The Perspectives of Parents, Foster Parents, and Child Welfare Workers [pdf]*
• Visiting Between Children in Care and Their Families: A Look at Current Policy (2003) [pdf]*
• Visitation Centers Help Speed Up Children's Court Cases, UF Researcher Finds
• Visitation: Through the Eyes of a Child [pdf]*
• Parent-Child Visits
• Promising Practices in Reunification [pdf]*
• Study Finds Supervised Visitation Beneficial for Young Children in Foster Care
• An Overview of Foster Care Family Visitation Issues [pdf]*

Video

Lutheran Community Services: Visits
Parent-child visiting is the crux of concurrent planning. Five foster families share their thoughts and feelings about their role in visits, how they established a meaningful relationship with the birth parents, and candidly discuss some of the problems that commonly occur.