Currently, there are almost 12,000 children in foster care in Georgia.  Because many of these children will eventually be reunified with their families, it is of utmost importance to maintain their relationships with their parents throughout their time in care.  Research shows that in order to best maintain the parent-child bond and improve outcomes when reunified, consistent contact among families is imperative.  In fact, visitation has multiple benefits in addition to improving attachment and outcomes.  It can ease the pain of separation for all family members and reassures the child that their parent is okay.  Visitation also enhances parent motivation to change by providing reassurance that the parent-child relationship is important for a child’s well-being.

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Located within the Kalen Center, The Cottage provides a safe, home-like, family friendly environment for supervised visitation services.  All families receive an individualized supervised visitation plan based on the needs of the family.  The Cottage focuses not only on allowing visitation time, but on teaching parents new skills to be implemented during the visits.  Parents receive coaching prior to the visit, live feedback during the visit, as well as a coaching/debriefing session following the visit.  The goal is for parents to learn new skills to utilize upon reunification of the family in an effort to prevent re-entry into the foster care system.

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With The Cottage's new program, parents gain increased knowledge and skills about parenting, resulting in more successful reunification, decreased rates of abuse and neglect, and fewer children re-entering the foster care system.

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