Family Time in the age of COVID

More than eighty percent of children in foster care have court-ordered visits with their families each week. Known as "family time," these visits are vital to maintaining and strengthening the relationships between siblings and their parents who are often in recovery from drug addiction. Skookum facilitates more than 100 hours of family time every week, ensuring this time is safe and helpful for everyone involved. 

In the age of COVID, though. In-person family time was temporarily suspended to prevent the spread of this contagious virus. Nobody was more disappointed by this than the children and parents who love one another and are tragically (but necessarily) separated by foster care. Back in March, Skookum was one of the very first agencies to develop protocols and begin delivering remote visits via facetime an zoom. We even had the opportunity to teach some other agencies how to do this well. Then, as case counts started to decline and it became safe, we were again one of the first to return to in-person visitation. These transitions—from in-person visitation to video visitation and back again—was a big adjustment for many families.

One sibling set of four children found creative ways to have fun with their parents and older sisters via webcam. Their video visits included lots of cartwheels and somersaults, building with blocks, and even testing out a homemade slip and slide. After more than two months of video visits, this family was excited to begin seeing each other in person once again. Each week the siblings—placed in different foster homes—are reunited to head to visits with their parents. Their visits, now at a park instead of via webcam, are spent swapping stories, exploring, playing lawn games, and goofing off together.