Bringing Families Back Together: Family Visitation at FCCS

Helping families rebuild, reconnect, and reunify is at the very heart of Franklin County Children Services’ core mission. “And visitation is a vital piece,” says Corey Leftridge, FCCS Family Services Supervisor. 

“We help parents and children stay connected and build toward reunification, keeping that family bond despite the distance, despite the trauma, despite the crises they may be in.”

FCCS’s Family Visitation team helps facilitate approximately 7,000 safe family visits annually. For many children in out-of-home placement, these visits are essential in building a safe, stable foundation for family reconnection and eventually reunification. 

Every day, every visit, the Visitation team is there to help make this critically important work happen. For Mr. Leftridge, it’s all about maintaining that vital family connection and getting kids back home again whenever safely possible. “We try to encourage the families to do things that help them reignite their bond.”

There are three levels of family visitation at FCCS, with the first two typically taking place at FCCS’s Whitehall or Frank Road offices. Supervised visits are closely overseen and carefully documented; monitored visits are when a family is checked in on at periodic intervals; and unsupervised visits are when a family is close to reunification and FCCS is just hosting the visits.

When a family is scheduled for an unsupervised visit, FCCS staff encourages them to be out in the community on a “regular family outing,” Mr. Leftridge notes, to “try to foster normalcy.”

Empathy, kindness, and patience are essential tools for the family visitation team, who are often helping parents as they navigate challenging circumstances such as substance abuse disorders, domestic violence, homelessness, and mental health issues. 

“Every day I walk into somebody else’s worst day,” Mr. Leftridge says. “I’m fortunate enough that everything I’ve done through my career and how I was raised prepared me to work in this endeavor with compassion. I try to make people feel seen, heard, and supported.”

In his time helping facilitate family visits, this longtime advocate for dads has felt particularly rewarded by the fathers he’s seen succeed. 

“I’m very intentional about greeting the fathers that are really stepping up and trying to parent, especially if they weren’t involved and become involved,” he says. “I understand how the system often doesn’t see men.” 

Mr. Leftridge recalls running into a father formerly involved with FCCS at the barber shop. This proud dad lit up and couldn’t wait to share well he was doing and that he had been granted full custody of his kids. 

“Those are the times that you feel like (you) made an impact.” 

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