Scheduled Trainings

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Designing and Operating a Visitation Center that Accounts for Domestic Violence

September 10-11, 2008 (Duluth, MN)

Visitation centers can be an invaluable resource when parents separate and struggle to arrange time with children. However, when there has been domestic violence, visitation centers are often unwitting accomplices to batterers' abuse tactics. Once a batterer has moved out and cannot directly control the family, systems and agencies can be used to control events with similar destructive effects.

When domestic violence has been identified, families need a safe, predictable and welcoming place to visit, knowing that they will be treated with respect, but also knowing that further abuse will not be tolerated. Duluth's Family Visitation Center is a unique national model operating within a highly developed coordinated community response to domestic violence. The center is informed by fifteen years of experience and 4,000 annual visits or exchanges.

This two-day training is for community advocacy agencies, local government agencies, and visitation center staff. This training is also for those who are planning a new center or redesigning their existing center to take referrals from families experiencing domestic violence. This training will examine how the programmatic design and procedures of a visitation center can be designed to meet the needs of families experiencing domestic violence. The focus is “hands on” training for staff including specialist knowledge of domestic violence and children, the roles of intervening agencies, working effectively with victims, offenders, and children, and the procedures and environment that make for a positive safe visitation center. Information sharing, agency protocols, referrals and community partnerships will also be explored.