Los Angeles County Visitation Centers

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

Both the South County and Torrance regional offices of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) created unique partnerships with the community and opened the county’s first Family Visitation Centers in October 2008 to provide a neutral and homelike space for children and parents to interact. This unique partnership has improved the quality and delivery of planned and purposeful visitation. This collaboration has provided services that are both beneficial and responsive to families served by DCFS. The primary goal of DCFS is keeping children safe with their families. This can only happen when the family can be assessed to be safe and the children are not at risk of future harm. Accessing formal and informal resources are important to insuring safety. When children cannot remain safely in their home, an out of home plan is initiated. The goal from day one is to get the children back to their parents. The quality and delivery of planned and purposeful visitation between parent and children continues to serve as the central component most closely linked to positive outcomes and reunification. As a result of the huge success of these first two Visitation Centers, another Center has opened in another Service Planning Area in Los Angeles County on November 2009. DCFS is already planning more Centers for the future.