About
Family Access Program provides invaluable and unique services to children and families. FAP strives to maintain and preserve the parent/child relationship, which we believe is instrumental in the overall healthy emotional development of children.
The Family Access Program is the first program of it's kind in Maine established to assist families in maintaining or establishing contact when the court has been forced to intervene and require a safe haven for child victims of violence, child maltreatment and neglect to maintain contact with their family members.
The Family Access Program (FAP) is a model, community-based visitation center, located in Springvale, Maine. The program is in its eighth year of providing unique and invaluable services to counties in southern Maine. Since 1999, FAP has provided services designed to help family members have access to one another on a consistent basis, in a neutral and safe setting, and with qualified staff providing close supervision. The program also provides a service that transfers children from one parent to another, in a conflict-free and unrestricted atmosphere.
Mission Statement
The Family Access Program seeks to enhance parent-child relationships through accessibility and education in a safe, neutral environment for the community at large.
Our goal is to provide children the opportunity to visit with their non-custodial parent or significant family members in a safe, neutral, and child friendly environment. Our trained monitors observe the interactions between the child and the parent in an objective and neutral manner.
History
Family Care Services has been providing supervised visitation and monitored exchange services to the southwestern region of Maine since 1998. Originally most of these services were provided to the Department of Human Services with a goal of reunification between foster children and their birth parents. In 2000, the agency expanded its services to include victims of domestic violence with a goal of providing safety to victims as well as a neutral setting for batterers to safely visit with their children. Currently funding comes from an Access and Visitation Grant provided through the Family Division of the Courts and the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Family Care Services has been identified as the Pilot Project for the State of Maine and helps to promote safe access and visitation to other agencies considering safe havens throughout the state in order to expand this much-needed service.
In the Spring of 2008 Parent Resource Center with the guidance of Heidi Bathalon founder of Family Care Services; began the process of absorbing the Family Access program to add to their wide variety of parent empowering programs. For more information about Parent Resource Center please visit parentresourcecenter.info