AG advises T’bonne residents to be weary of fraud
May 24, 2010McCollom Beasley
May 26, 2010
When someone thinks of a city’s Town Hall building, beautiful murals and plenty of toys typically don’t come to mind.
But with the addition of the Parents and Children Together (PACT) Place and the help of local artist Hans Geist, the town of Lockport has made that vision a reality.
As part of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, PACT Place offers supervised visitation and monitored exchange services for families with a history or potential for domestic violence.
“When a woman leaves a domestic violence situation, even though she’s left, she’s still in a volatile situation for years to come,” said PACT Place Coordinator Pam Guedry. “So to be able to provide [the other parent] a safe place to be able to visit, not having to worry about what’s going to happen in the visit or having to go face to face with the other parent.”
Although the parents of these children have separated and some moms and dads are required by law to stay apart, Guedry said most victims of abuse would still like the other parent to take an active role in their child’s life – as long as it’s in a safe environment.
PACT Place provides two separate parking lots, entrances and waiting rooms so both parents can easily follow court orders.
“Prior to having a center like this, parents were given a protective order, but they were still having to meet in a parking lot to exchange children, so they would come face to face,” said Guedry. “There’s usually a violation there where somebody would get hauled off to jail, and that’s right in front of the child. This alleviates all that.”
During the two-hour visits the center provides, PACT Place assigns a monitor to every room to stop uncomfortable conversations before they begin.
“A lot of times, parents like to use children as pawns to fetch information or to know what the other parent is doing or blaming the other parent,” said Guedry. “Anything like that, kids don’t need to hear that and have those types of adult conversations, so we’re in the middle of the room. We can stop those conversations as soon as they start.”
Guedry said monitors must be within ear and eye site at all times, but she stressed the monitors are only there to make sure things don’t get out of hand between parent and child.
“A lot of times the first two visits are a little awkward, because we’re watching them,” said Guedry. “But after they realize we’re not sitting there judging them, that we’re just giving them space, they interact with their kids as normal.”
With the help of many local donations, PACT place provides quite a bit of fun activities including Nintendo Wii, Play Station 2, DVDs, board games and toys.
These activities help parents and children develop a relationship that may not have been very strong in the past.
“They want to play. They want to stay,” said Guedry. “It’s really hard to get them to leave, because everything is so cool – definitely it’s a lot cooler than growing up in my room.”
Since opening Oct. 1, 2009, PACT Place has received 16 court referrals and has served 13 families, including 14 children ranging in age from two months to 14 years.
“We’ve provided 69 visits. That’s a total of 138 visiting hours,” said Guedry.” “Talking to people on a national level, when we tell people we have 13 families, they say, ‘You just opened and you have 13 then you’re doing well.'”
Guedry said the PACT Place in Mathews is the closest center of its kind in 156 miles, and it currently accepts families from Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, Assumption and St. Charles parishes.
“The court assigns families to the center,” said Guedry. “If they want to see their child, they contact us, and this is the place to do it,”
Guedry said the center plans on expanding its services to administer weekend visitation as well.
“One parent will bring them here on a Friday night,” said Guedry. “Then we’ll take the child to the other parent off site somewhere, and on Sunday we’ll bring the child back. The judge is the one that decides whether it’s going to be visits or exchanges.”
Guedry said this service should begin within one month.
Lafourche Parish Police Chief Bud Dill (left) presents artist Hans Geist with a Certificate of Appreciation for his volunteer work at the Parents and Children Together Place in Mathews. Geist painted the pictured tree house as part of a room-wide mural. * Photo by RICHARD FISCHER
