FCCS Visitation Keeps Families Connected

When young people can no longer stay with a parent, it’s still critically important to help kids maintain connections to their loved ones. And over the past year, Franklin County Children Services has coordinated thousands of safe visits to connect children and separated parents - and used the time that families are together to connect them with additional support. 

Regularly-scheduled family visitation is an opportunity for children who are in out-of-home care and their parents to spend quality time together, with the ultimate goal of family reunification. 

In 2023, FCCS has coordinated more than 6,000 of these family visits over the course of the year.

LaTisha Sterling is one of 34 FCCS social service aides (SSA) who helped facilitate these meaningful family gatherings.

“My passion is helping people… being an advocate for the people we serve,” says Sterling, who works primarily out of FCCS’s West Region office on Frank Road. 

With both a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in social work and a wealth of experience in the social services field, Sterling is especially well suited to helping families as they navigate challenging circumstances. 

This empathetic, detail-oriented SSA often recommends community resources to the families she supports, helps them problem solve challenges they face, or simply listens with a caring ear to a mom or dad who might be having an especially difficult day. 

It’s fair to say that Sterling is beloved by the families she sees on a regular basis and values the rapport she builds with children and parents.  “I really get to know them, and they really get to know me.”  

Letting everyone know they matter is one of Sterling’s guiding principles in her daily work, as is always being respectful and treating all her families with courtesy and compassion. 

The very best part of her job is “seeing the smiles on kids’ faces when they see their parents,” Sterling says. “That’s the reward.”