In the Washington State, parents are required to carry out supervised visits with their child to regain custody after issues with things like substance abuse or neglect. This is a process that can cause a lot of stress for both the parent and the child, and creates considerable challenges towards helping the parent become more effective. Helping the parent gain life-long parenting skills is important to avoid a lifetime of expensive services and to improve the lives of both parent and child.
Partners for Our Children and the Washington DSHS Children’s administration have partnered to develop an open source parenting program to facilitate this process. The initial design contains 15 sessions designed to help the parent learn about what to expect for these visits. Since it is open source, the cost is much lower than other programs, it can be adapted to fit the needs of unique individuals, external groups or individuals can improve its content, and the program can spread beyond Washington State.
