Joyce Saye, is an adoptive parent and grandparent, now raising her preteen granddaughter. For ten years she directed a statewide mental health advocacy program. Before that, she worked for Family and Children Services for over twenty years in many capacities including caseworker, supervisor, research and demonstration director, state director of training and of program management. She holds an MS from Georgia State and has experience in child protective services, adoptions, and other social services. She has been supervising visitation for fifteen year with A-Plus S ervices in Atlanta and for four years with Family Visits in counties outside Atlanta. She has been a field instructor for Atlanta University School of Social Work, adjunct faculty at Southern Polytechnic Institute, and on staff at the Center for Research in Social Change at Emory University.

Eugene Walden, III is a Vietnam Era veteran who was a radar operator in the U.S. Air Force. Following his honorable discharge, he majored in Political Science at Mercer University in his hometown of Macon. Eugene gained ten years of practical experience with children and adults as Director of Community Services with a CAP Agency, and as a child protective services worker with Departments of Family and Children Services. While earning his M.S.W. from the University of Georgia, Eugene worked with Vietnam combat veterans in Atlanta, Later he worked as a clinical social worker with developmentally challenged people and as a mental health advocate. Eugene is the father of five children.

Others who work with Joyce and Eugene are also veterans of responsible careers in services to families.

Families come to our service for many different reasons and the same issues are not present in all situations. There are principles that apply across the board. First, we are committed to the well being of children. Second, we expect to treat everyone with courtesy and respect and to be treated the same way.

When you call us, we will set up two meetings before the first visit, one with the visiting parent and another with the custodial parent and the child or children. The interviews inform us about legal parameters and the concerns and hopes of all parties. They also allow the visiting and custodial parents to get acquainted with us and to decide whether they feel we can work together. They let us get to know the children so that we will be familiar faces to them when the first visit takes place

In collaboration with both parents and sometimes with other professionals providing services to the family, we will write a Visitation Plan. The Plan will describe how we will all proceed in compliance with the court’s directions, and the needs and interests of all parties. It will specify what we need from each party and what each person can expect from us.

Our preference is to have the supervisor act as the child’s bridge between one parent and the other at the beginning and the end of each visit. Once a visit begins, the visiting parent is committed to remain with the supervisor. We will be present, attentive and generally in the background. Our goal is to support visits that are much as they would be if we were not needed. The purpose is to normalize the environment for the child and parent as much as possible without sacrificing security in any way. With genuine cooperation, this is reliably possible.

During the visits, we often take notes for reports that we will prepare later. Our reports are descriptions of the day’s activities and the interaction between parents and children. Collectively, they comprise a written narrative of the experience of the child and the visiting parent. They are factual notes and observations, not clinical evaluations, so commentary is minimal. We prefer to let our reports speak for themselves when possible and so we try to make them complete.

Our supervisors and our agency are neutral where all issues between the parents or other parties are concerned. It is helpful for us to understand each person’s point of view but it is not our role to intervene between the adults or to assess the validity of any person’s claim against the other. This allows both parents and the children to rely upon us to support positive interaction and experiences for everyone.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Meade