L.E.S Community Partnership Family Visiting Program The mission of the Lower East Side Community Partnership (L.E.S.C.P) program is to enhance the family visiting experience for Lower East Side families who are involved with the foster care system. By partnering with different community-based organizations, we are able to provide opportunities for families to engage in activities that promote bonding between parent and child in their community. Examples include local libraries, the many community gardens throughout the Lower East Side, and our wonderful family visiting space at the Children’s Museum of the Arts, where families can take advantage of many of the workshops offered by the museum. By having family visits occur in the Lower East Side, families are connected with their community, as well as the many resources that the community has to offer. In addition to providing places for family visits, L.E.S.C.P also has a team of child welfare professionals (Visit Coaches) and community volunteers (Visit Hosts) who are available to supervise or facilitate the family visiting sessions, depending on the level of supervision required for each family. Visiting Coach – is a professional who:

• has experience working with families in the child welfare system • builds a collaborative relationship with the visiting parent in order to co-create goals for

parenting that, once met, will help the visiting parent move towards reunification • Maintains a neutral stance by remaining curious about the visiting parent’s experiences,

expectations and values without judgment and allows the visiting parent to be an expert in his or her own life

• Assesses the visiting parent’s strengths and needs, and provides the parent with feedback regarding how s/he/they can best meet the needs of his or her child

• Builds the visiting parent’s competence as a parent by encouraging the parent to make parenting decisions within the context of the supervised visit

• Utilizes resources within the community to provide families with the opportunity to access engaging and age-appropriate activities, free-of-charge, while allowing the family to interact “everyday” settings

Visiting Host – a community volunteer who supports families in their efforts to reunify with their child(ren) by being present with the family during its visits and acting as an unobtrusive observer. Visiting hosts support the parent in their parenting role and help assure the safety of the child(ren) during visits. The goal is to prepare the family for unsupervised visits. These visits will also occur in various family-oriented settings throughout the Lower East Side and its surrounding communities. Visiting hosts fill out a questionnaire after every visit but will also provide additional observations during the visits, if the case planner requires additional details of what occurred during the visit. In both cases, the visiting coach or visiting host works closely with the case planner to determine the progress of the family, particularly the visiting coach who has to prepare notes for each visit. Our visiting coaches also receive monthly supervision from a clinical consultant. *For more information about our Family Visiting program, please contact: Flora Huang at (212) 387-0557 x4224 or lescpi@gmail.com.

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