Lockport visitation center to stay open until 2014

A Lockport-based safe haven for custody exchanges and supervised visitation received a $350,000 grant that will allow it to remain open through September 2014, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office announced.

The PACT Place Supervised Visitation and Exchange Center provides a secure avenue for parents who have suffered domestic violence or sexual assault to follow through with their custodial duties in an atmosphere that curtails child manipulation by n and ensures no contact between n the separated parents.

“We have it set up to where there’s two separate parking lots, two separate entrances, two separate waiting areas and the staff is the one who takes the child from one parent to the other, so there is never any reason for those parents to come into contact,” said Pam Guedry, the program’s coordinator since May 2008. “That alleviates the children from seeing any conflict.”

Most of the 700 hours the center has devoted to 49 families and 74 children since it opened its doors Oct. 1, 2009, have been through court orders. As long as both parents consent, however, the facility’s services are offered to any separated family.

Law enforcement and social service agencies often refer conflicted parents to the center.

PACT Place was developed after a similar center in Thibodaux lost its federal funding. Its advocates say it is a valuable resource for the court system.

Judge John LeBlanc, of the 17th Judicial District, is a member of the PACT Place advisory committee. He said the “element of control is the key,” and the unpredictability of a parking-lot exchange is no longer a worry.

“It’s a tremendous aid to us in that it ensures us there is control and there is safety,” LeBlanc said. “When we send people to exchange at a public place, there is no security, there is no safety, there is no assurance that one party or the other won’t take advantage of the situation.”

The facility is open Wednesday through Sunday, but it only takes in families by appointment. Intakes are free, but a sliding fee scale based on income that ranges from $5 to $30 per visit and $2 to $5 per exchange is implemented.

The center, located at Lockport Town Hall, employs two full-time staff members and operates on about $110,000 each year for rent, utilities and salaries. The sheriff’s office and Lockport police provide deputies and officers for security detail, and the center contracts with social workers who monitor conversations.

“With trained monitors who understand the dynamics of domestic violence and the manipulation and control tactics that batterers use, we’re able to sit there and stop any inappropriate conversations right then and there,” Guedry said.

The services offered provide a safe haven for battered partners, but it also gives children of such families a chance to develop a relationship with a parent in an environment that cuts out manipulation.

“Until they can get away and start seeing the parent in a better light and the parent cannot control them, not continue any abuse on them, maybe there can be some kind of healing to work toward as they start building a relationship,” Guedry said. “We’re hoping that we’re giving them to the space to be able to do that.”

The Department of Justice’s Office of Violence against Women awarded the funding, which will keep the center open for at least 33 months.

Meanwhile, the program’s officials hope to expand its service area beyond Lafourche and increase the amount of families it takes in from Terrebonne, St. Charles, Jefferson and other river parishes.

“Right now, we have some families that come from the different parishes, but we want to be able to open that up and reach as many families as needed,” Guedry said.

The closest center with a similar mission is in New Orleans, but it only takes in families from Orleans Parish. The next closest custody exchange and supervised visitation center is in Lafayette, leaving a large percentage of south Louisiana’s population without the service.

In addition to expanding its intake range, Guedry said center officials would reach out into communities to explain their services, including domestic violence prevention and batterers intervention programs.

Sheriff Craig Webre called the grant award “wonderful news.”

“I think the fact we received this continuation grant is a testament to the outstanding services that the employees of our center are providing,” Webre said in a printed release. “The children are always their main concern, and the parents recognize the importance of the center and the services we provide.”

The PACT Place Supervised Visitation and Exchange Center in Lockport offers a safe haven for custody exchanges and supervised visitations. Operated by the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, the center is decorated to entice youngsters to play and relax. COURTESY PHOTO