CommonWorks

Services

Foster Care
Gateway provides out of home foster care (including case management) for both Dependency and Neglected children, as well as Youth in the Juvenile Justice system. For more information, contact janis.milner@commonworks.net.

Structured Parenting Program
Developed in 1998, Structured Parenting Specialists moniter visits between biological parents and their children in out-of-home placement. The main goal is to ensure the safety of children during visitation with their parents, while they are working on the completion of their treatment plan.

There are three levels of safety, based on case progress. Level I requires staff to see and hear all activities in a contained setting. Visits are reduced to Level II, when there are no longer verbal or physical safety concerns. These visits are generally moved into community locations, however, still not the client's home. Level III is initiated within a month or two of reunification, is located in the client's home and is partially unsupervised.

Other duties of the Specialist include: termination of parental rights court testimony, attendance and progress reporting at 90-day Treatment Team meetings, "good bye" visits after termination, weekly written visit reports and bi-weekly informational supervisory meetings with the Program Coordinator to ensure appropriate team work with DHS.

This program employs a staff of seven and require a degree. A caseload of approximately 30 is maintained monthly, with over 100 visits per month completed. Four "home like" visit rooms are available for client visits, complete with table and chair sets, changing tables, high chairs, toys and games. Clients are encouraged to bring activities from home to the visits. For more information, contact jamie.snodgrass@commonworks.net.

Domestic Visitation Program
Initiated by the Mesa County Justice Center in July 2006, this program utilizes a sliding scale payment system, based upon the client's gross income and supplemented by an annual grant of $36,000. Gateway is the service provider for court ordered supervised visits involving divorce cases. Referrals alsomay come through Colorado Legal Services (domestic violence cases) or local client attorneys, as well as through four Mesa County Judges and three Magistrates.

The Visitation Supervisor conducts an intake with each parent and upon completion, initiates visits with the non-custodial parent and his/her children. An "observation form" is completed for each visit and all paperwork remains confidential within each file. Gateway serves as a "neutral" party providing a safe place for children to visit their parent. There is no parental contact on Gateway property, using a 15-minute lapse time.

The Visitation Supervisor may be supeoned to court to testify by either parent or asked to write a progress report. At that time, the parent who requested this s responsible for the fee charged and the information is released to both parents simultaneously. All visits occur at Gateway, utilizing the same staff as the Structured Parenting Program. For more information, contact jamie.snodgrass@commonworks.net.

ROCK Mentoring Program
The goal of the ROCK is to reduce criminal involvement and drug/alcohol involvement of foster youth, juvenile justice involved youth and community at-risk youth targeted by Gateway. The philosophy of the program is to build positive character in youth, to impact change in the context of relationship, to provide linkages to various community resources, and to provide spiritual guidance. For more information or to volunteer to be trained as a ROCK mentor, contact tammara.dickerson@commonworks.net.

	The ROCK Brochure (488 KB)