At LCCS, one of our top priorities is to help families overcome the problems in their lives so they can regain the stability necessary to be reunified with their children.
Reunification can be a rough road for many parents. It takes a willingness to do the hard work, accept changes in their lives, have confidence in their ability to succeed, and trust in the process.
Hearing about the lived experience from someone who has already walked a similar path and succeeded becomes essential to helping parents successfully work their case plans and ultimately reunify as a family.
Parent partner Lee Ann Campbell once had a case with LCCS and temporarily lost custody of her five children. She credited a moment of grace and understanding from her caseworker for setting her on the path to personal redemption—and eventually regaining custody and reuniting with her children. One simple act by her caseworker —sharing some sweet-smelling hand lotion — meant she felt seen and valued by someone else, something many of us take for granted.
“They took an invisible person and made her visible again,” Lee Ann recalls through tears.
That was 20 years ago. Lee Ann’s willingness to share her story in graphic detail to parents who have themselves lost custody of their kids gives her “street cred,” and sends a powerful message: if she can come back from the traumas of substance abuse and forced childhood prostitution, then they, too, can successfully take the steps necessary to make their family safer, stronger, and more stable—and eventually, reunified.
As a parent partner, Lee Ann walks hand-in-hand with parents whenever needed. She teams up with LCCS staff to teach two courses that help parents better understand what’s needed and provide them with the road map and support they need.
The deployment of parent partners with lived experience is one big reason why LCCS has been able to reduce the average number of children in agency custody by 200 kids over the past couple of years.
Reunification Readiness is a five-week class and peer support group that helps parents prepare to return to caring for their children. Reunification can be a scary experience for some families involved with LCCS; parents have been separated from their children for a period of time, and those kids have gotten older, developed new habits, and matured over the weeks and months they have lived with kin, friends, or foster parents. Parents find themselves faced with parenting “different” children than the ones they left behind.
Building a Better Future is a five-week class and peer support group that helps parents currently involved with LCCS learn how to navigate their case from opening through reunification.