We provide services to families who for various reasons find themselves in need of supervised visits and/or transportation. This includes but is not limited to, supervised exchanges, sibling groups, adoptive children visiting bio. parents.

Transportation: We will transport children from care to secure and previously agreed upon locations where we meet with the visiting parent or parents, at the conclusion of the visit we will transport children back to care.

Supervision: We will provide a level of supervision previously agreed upon by all parties to the visit, children’s current caregivers, visiting parents, any social workers or other state agents that may be involved. The level of supervision requested of us is most often fully supervised, which means that we will remain within sight, sound and reach of children and visiting parents at all times. However we also perform supervision on a monitoring basis, in which we will check in periodically, usually every fifteen minutes.

Safety issues: We will collaborate with the client and any other involved parties, such as a social worker or caregiver in order to create a basic safety plan and set of rules for the visitation, these rules will be explained to and agreed upon by the visiting parent before any visitation occurs, we shall enforce these rules and as a last resort exercise our authority as temporary caretaker for the child to end the visit early if these rules are not followed.

Documentation: During fully supervised or monitored visits, we will document the interactions between parent and child in a clear, concise and unbiased manner. We will create a narrative report of the visit which we will provide to the client who contracted us to perform the service.

Our visit house is located in downtown Auburn. We have 4 dedicated visit rooms, a spacious family room, large dining and kitchen area, and a great big living room. Some families bring food and spend time together cooking and sharing a meal during visitation. We are stocked with games, blocks, books, movies, craft supplies, and toys. We have ample parking, wheel chair access, dedicated handicapped parking and seperate access to the downstairs and upstairs. Because we are all about families we have tried to create an atmosphere that is homelike and comfortable. We believe that home is truly where the heart is and are dedicated to creating a safe and warm environment for visits. We love our visit house and hope that you will too!

Legend of the Dream Catcher

From the Wounded Knee School, Manderson, South Dakota.

Long ago when the world was young, an old Lakot spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language that only the spiritual leaders of the Lakota could understand. As he spoke Iktomi, the spider, took the elder’s willow hoop which had feathers, horse hair, beads and offerings on it and began to spin a web.

He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life . . . and how we begin our lives as infants and we move on to childhood, and then to adulthood. Finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle. “But,” Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, “in each time of life there are many forces — some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But if you listen to the bad forces, they will hurt you and steer you in the wrong direction.” He continued, “There are many forces and different directions that can help or interfere with the harmony of nature, and also with the Great Spirit and all of his wonderful teachings.”

All the while the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web starting from the outside and working towards the center. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the Lakota elder the web and said . . . “See, the web is a perfect circle but there is a hole in the center of the circle. Use the web to help yourself and your people to reach your goals and make good use of your people’s ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will catch your good ideas — and the bad ones will go through the hole.”

The Lakota elder passed on his vision to his people and now the Sioux Indians use the dream catcher as the web of their life. It is hung above their beds or in their home to sift their dreams and visions. The good in their dreams is captured in the web of life and carried with them . . . but the evil in their dreams escapes through the hole in the center of the web and is no longer a part of them. They believe that the dream catcher holds the destiny of their future.

(From Sunrise magazine, October/November 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Theosophical University Press.)