Contact Children’s Safe Harbor by phone (815) 316-7772 or email to setup an appointment for the intake/orientation process. Bring a form of ID and any relevant court/agency paperwork.
Once enrolled in Children’s Safe Harbor visitation exchange or supervised visitation, staff will continually work with parents to address on-going safety concerns. Parents will enter through separate entrances, use separate parking areas and arrive/depart at pre-scheduled staggered times.
Children’s Safe Harbor will also document contact with each family member that includes any visitation exchange or supervised visitation, phone calls or contact with the court when applicable. Each record of client contact includes at a minimum:
- Name of parent/child
- Name of the staff member providing the service
- Date & time of the exchange
- Summary of activities during the exchange or visit that include any interventions made by staff
Children’s Safe Harbor wants supervised visitation and visitation exchange to be a pleasant experience for everyone. Staff monitors for and asks parents to not engage in any of the following types of behavior:
- Repeated late arrivals
- Repeated no-shows
- Non-compliance with staggered arrival times
- Negative talk about the other parent
- Using children to send messages to the other parent
- Making promises abut future living arrangements or visitation changes
- Questioning the child about the other parents activities
- Parents who appear under the influence of alocohol or drugs
- Violence or threats of violence or incidents of abuse whether physical or verbal
- Violation of protection or visitation orders
Staff will not document:
- Hearsay statements such as: She said/he said that are not directly related to safety
- Opinions on what was witnessed during the exchange
- Speculations on what may occur outside Children’s Safe Harbor based on behavior that occurs at Children’s Safe Harbor
Our role at Children’s Safe Harbor is to provide a non-evaluative safe environment for visitation exchange and supervised visitation services. Therefore all documentation at Children’s Safe Harbor is non-evaluative. Reports are limited to facts, observations and direct statements-not the personal conclusions, recommendations or opinions of staff.