Supporting families through Supervised Visitation Program
What is SVP?
SVP stands for Supervised Visitation Program. At the Winston Prouty Center, our SVP consists of both supervised visits and supervised exchanges, both critical resources for families and children in high-conflict situations.
- Visits provide a safe space for children to rekindle or maintain a relationship with a parent they don’t live with under the supervision of a neutral professional.
- Exchanges support shared custody arrangements between separated parents with no-contact orders, mediating all contact with each parent so that they may safely exchange custody without fear of seeing or speaking to the other parent.
Benefits of SVP
SVP is most necessary in cases where there is a concern for the safety of the child and/or a parent feels unsafe with their co-parent.
- SVP makes sure all children are safe. We belong to statewide and international SVP coalitions to stay updated on research-supported standards for safety.
- Children feel connected with both parents throughout periods of high conflict. Safe and consistent quality time with both parents throughout a family transition mitigates the trauma of divorce and parental conflict on children.
- Some parents are able to repair trust through SVP, after witnessing their co-parent demonstrate consistency and safe behavior.
Success Stories
We have the honor of bearing witness to incredible connections and growth.
- A mother local to the area and a father from Cape Cod with a 2-year-old came in for two supervised visits, and this was enough for the adults to figure out how to co-parent without SVP.
- A teenager in Brattleboro hadn’t seen his mother in 8 years, as she was living far away in Maryland. She drove up to Brattleboro and they attended two visits in a week; it closed the gap in their relationship, and they chose to continue contact on their own.
- After consistently attending weekly visits for a year, a local family agreed to shared custody.
Challenge
SVP is funded through state contracts and donations, and the state funding is being reduced, requiring us to raise even more funds through gifts and grants.
We are committed to making sure that this essential service remains intact.
- Our development staff has been working hard to secure meaningful, stable grant funding for SVP.
- We’ve advocated for increased state funding by writing to our state legislators during the budget season. The VT House and Senate approved a one-time increase statewide of $130,000. We appreciate these funds and recognize that additional resources are still needed to stabilize existing programs and expand services in underserved areas.
Can you join our effort and show your support for SVP with a donation to our Spring Appeal?
“I am so grateful for SVP. My ex and I are doing so much better now and able to communicate well. Our child loves seeing her father all the time, calls him ‘dadda’ and will freely go to him without needing me around.”
-Anonymous parent