1. Agency Overview: Parenting Time Center, Inc.
Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley
July 9, 2016
MissionStatement: to support every child's right to have a safe and nurturing place in which to
have a relationship with that child's parent; to increase access to supervised visitation and
exchange services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and
child abuse; and to provide communities with education and support that promotes opportunities
for children to have safe, conflict-free access to both parents through a continuum of child access
services.
History of Agency
Parenting Time Center (PTC) was established in 2009 to meet the needs of parents and
children who require third-party supervision for parenting time and safe exchanges of children
between parents. PTC serves both voluntary and Court-ordered clients in southwestern Indiana
with on-site supervised parenting time and exchanges in a safe and neutral environment. PTC
staff members do not take sides or discuss the underlying issues related to referral with clients
and treat each client with respect, while maintaining confidentiality.
PTC operates primarily through collaborative relationships with the area court systems,
probation departments, and the Department of Child Services (DCS). Most clients are ordered to
supervised parenting time/exchange or to take PTC’s Cooperative Parenting Class through the
courts in southwestern Indiana with most clients coming from Vanderburgh, Posey, Warrick and
Gibson County. Referrals come from Domestic Relations, Juvenile Paternity, and Child in Need
of Services cases. PTC also receives referrals for voluntary clients through relationships with
other agencies in the community which include Evansville Police, Vanderburgh County Sheriff,
4-C of Southwestern Indiana, Deaconess and St. Mary’s hospitals, Evansville Vanderburgh
School Corporation, YWCA, United Caring Shelter, Albion Fellows Bacon Center, the local
Veterans hospital, and local mental health and counseling providers. PTC attends health fairs and
many community events to ensure the public has an awareness of services. PTC also maintains
knowledge of services offered in the community to refer clients where appropriate.
PTC operates seven days a week from 8 am to 8 pm with the exception of major holidays.
PTC has two full-time employees aside from the Executive Director- the Office Manager and
Intake Coordinator. Visitation/exchange supervisors and facilitators are part-time employees, and
there are typically two to six on duty when the agency is open. Only the Office Manager has less
than a Master’s Degree but holds a Bachelor’s Degree in a Human Services field. The Intake
Coordinator has a Master’s Degree in Counseling. The Executive Director and all
visitation/exchange facilitators and supervisors have an MSW degree, and some also are LCSWs.
PTC has 3 visitation rooms and staggers visit start times. PTC currently facilitates and
supervises approximately 40 visits and exchanges each week. PTC served more than 200
families and facilitated more than a 1400 visits and exchanges in 2015. Many visitation/exchange
supervisors and facilitators work part-time or on an on-call basis. PTC works closely with the
University of Southern Indiana and typically has up to three MSW graduate students working as
interns. PTC trains and cultivates relationships with MSW students to add to its staff post-
graduation as needed. Visitation supervisors and facilitators must have at least an MSW degree.

2. Service Demographics
The most common situations addressed with supervised visitation and exchange are
parents and children with a history or current circumstance of domestic violence, child neglect
and abuse, substance abuse, homelessness, mental illness, inexperienced parenting, post-adoption
needs, and estranged or high-conflict parents. PTC has a policy on cultural competence that is
based on the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Current
clients of PTC include African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, those of Asian and Middle
Eastern or Indian descent and interracial couples. Ninety-five percent of PTC clients have a low
socio-economic status. PTC clients have diverse sociocultural values and lifestyle choices.
Interpretation, translation and Sign Language Services are provided when necessary.
Practice Model
PTC is a member of the Supervised Visitation Network (SVN) and has policies and
procedures that comply with the best practice standards of SVN, Indiana law, the United States
Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women, and the NASW Code of Ethics.
PTC is certified by SVN to provide supportive supervised visitation, which allows the visitation
supervisor to be actively involved in promoting behavioral change in parent/child relationships.
Visitation supervisors are trained in the basic stages of child development; effects of separation
and divorce on children and families; grief and loss associated with parental separation and
removal from the home; cultural sensitivity and diversity; family violence, including domestic
violence and the effects of domestic violence on children; child abuse and neglect, including
child sexual abuse; substance abuse; provisions of service to parents and children with mental
health and developmental issues or other physical or emotional impairment; parent
introduction/re-introduction; parenting skills; assertiveness training and conflict resolution; how
and when to intervene during visits or exchanges to maintain the safety of all participants;
behaviors that facilitate positive attachment, separation and reconnection; trauma informed care;
intervention to promote change; observation of parent/child interactions; and preparation of
factual observation notes and reports. Periodic reviews of files with staff members, regular
training and staff meetings are used to maintain proper procedures and quality in providing
services to clients. Visitation supervisors and facilitators also receive specialized training at the
agencies where they work full-time.
Visitation supervisors strengthen families by teaching, demonstrating and role modeling
appropriate parenting skills to improve the parent-child relationship. Supervisors instruct parents
in child care skills; teach positive affirmations; provide instruction about child development
stages (current and future); teach age-appropriate discipline and positive parent-child interaction
through conversation and play; and provide opportunities for snack and meal preparation with
children. The agency operates from the strengths perspective and uses cognitive behavioral and
social learning theories and strategies to change parent and child behavior.
Visitation occurs at PTC in a private room equipped with a video camera, and with age-
appropriate toys and games. Each visit has a supervisor who monitors the visits, takes
observation notes, and intervenes as necessary to redirect or emphasize appropriate behavior.
There is also a visitation facilitator assigned to the visit who manages the drop off and pick up of
children and who observes the visit from a video monitor. All visits are recorded and may be
reviewed at a later date. There are also cameras monitoring the entrances to the facility and the
parking lot, as well as procedures in place to ensure doors are locked at all times. Visiting

3. parents are not intermingled and are kept separate from the party dropping off and picking up the
child.
All visiting parties and those transporting children are observed for the potential of being
under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Visits are canceled or terminated when a visitation
supervisor determines a visiting party is intoxicated or poses a threat to the physical or emotional
well-being of the child or staff members. When appropriate, the visitation supervisor will attempt
to redirect or prompt the visiting party to stop the behavior before ending a visit. Both the
visitation supervisor and facilitator are required to wear panic buttons, which sound a monitored
alarm if triggered. PTC keeps detailed notes of all visits and exchanges. The notes are
observation and do not include opinion. The notes do reflect when an intervention occurs and a
visiting party is assisted or directed for a parenting issue. The notes are provided to clients after
each visit/exchange. PTC periodically certifies notes for court hearings and responds to
subpoenas for notes. Occasionally, PTC staff members are called to testify related to
visits/exchanges overseen.
Program Integrity and Evaluation
PTC administers the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) to the visiting parent
when services begin and end. Staff members are trained to score the instrument and results are
logged to monitor the parent’s attitude toward parenting and toward their children. The PCRI has
seven substantive measures: parental support scale, satisfaction with parenting scale,
involvement scale, communication scale, limit setting scale, autonomy scale, role orientation
scale, and two measures for validity: social desirability indicator and inconsistency indicator.
The goals of PTC is to increase scores over the time a parent has supervised visitation or
exchanges, which indicates an increase in positive parenting characteristics. PTC has begun a
review of completed PCRI instruments to determine an optimum length of supervised parenting
time/exchange for the greatest impact on positive parenting characteristics. PTC is also in the
process of developing its own validated instrument to measure the impact of services on
children, parental conflict, child support compliance and the need for other services.
PTC also uses a general survey at the beginning and end of services which gauges the
level of satisfaction clients have with the agency, as well as their initial concerns in using
services and whether those concerns were alleviated. The survey also asks for suggestions about
how services could be improved. PTC is a not for profit agency with a multidisciplinary Board of
Directors with authority to establish policies and procedures. The Board periodically reviews
policies and procedures based on client feedback and changes in best practices through SVN or
Office of Violence Against Women.
PTC’s primary outcome adheres to it mission statement and is to keep a child emotionally
and physically safe while spending time with a parent. The secondary outcome which also
adheres to the mission statement is to improve the parent-child relationship through improved
skills and attitudes. To measure the secondary outcome, PTC looks for positive changes in the
parent-child interactions during visits and for increased or new parenting skills demonstrated by
the parent. Visitation supervisors encourage and reinforce appropriate parenting and discourage
behaviors that are not appropriate. Visitation supervisors build rapport with parents and children
and come to be seen as someone who can be trusted for guidance, who does not judge a parent
for weaknesses, and who is there to help improve the parent-child relationship. Follow up phone
calls are made to parents after they leave the program to see if they are continuing to have
positive visits with their children.

4. Funding of Agency and Adequacy of Services
PTC is primarily funded through local fundraising efforts. The agency does receive a
federal grant through the Office of Violence Against Women which is administered by the City
of Evansville. Parents receiving services are a significant source of funding, most pay one-third
of the cost of their services. The agency is always looking for grants opportunities to be able to
expand to meet the community needs. There is a waiting list for supervised parenting time and a
significant number of parents state they cannot pay the $30 Intake and $25 per hour of visitation
and are not put on the waiting list.
According to the Indiana Youth Institute, Indiana has the 5th highest rate of documented
cases of child abuse and neglect in the United States. The rate for Indiana is 16 per 1000, and
half of victims are under the age of 5. Ten percent of children in Indiana live with a parent who
suffers from a mental illness. Thirteen percent live with a parent who has a substance abuse
issue. Indiana had the highest level of methamphetamine usage in the country in 2014 with
southwestern Indiana leading the state with arrests and the number of methamphetamine labs.
The percent of children in poverty in Indiana in 2014 was more than 21 percent, with Posey
County at 14 percent, Vanderburgh County at 25 percent, Warrick County at 11 percent, and
Gibson County at 17 percent. Mental health, poverty and substance abuse issues are often a
factor in child abuse and neglect cases. 2015 broke records in Indiana with the number of Child
in Need of Services cases opened in the court system based on reports of child abuse and neglect.
Within southwestern Indiana, 50% of parents involved with Child in Need of Services cases
today were involved in similar cases when they were children. In the first 3 months of 2016, 122
children were put in foster care in the counties of Posey, Vanderburgh, Gibson and Warrick. This
does not include children who were placed with relatives. PTC is wholly unable to address the
need for services related to child abuse and neglect and domestic violence with its current
funding and staffing levels. It is the only supervised parenting time and safe exchange center in
southwest Indiana.
My Role at PTC
I have been working on grant applications, bids for contracts with DCS, the creation of a
measurement tool to help PTC demonstrate its effectiveness in reducing child abuse and neglect
and strengthening parent-child relationships, as well I am conducting intake assessments, and
supervising and facilitating parenting time and safe exchanges.