As we are all being asked to change our lives in response to Covid-19 and social distancing, key aspects of our lives must change. If you are a parent with a child placed out of your care, or a caregiver of a child experiencing foster care, you probably have been asked to move from in-person visitation to remote or virtual visitation. For many, this a brand new way of doing visitation. Common feelings I've heard expressed by foster parents regarding remote visitation include fear of inviting someone into their home, albeit remotely, confusion on how the visit will be structured, and needing to know how much or little they are expected to participate in the visit.
To respond to those fears and questions, I partnered with an amazing parent (Jason Bragg) to create this video to walk you through what a remote visit might look like from beginning to end. While I know each situation is very individual and unique, I am hopeful this will help answer some of your questions, and give you a template on which to build a successful remote visitation plan.
The video is 18 minutes long, so I encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and make sure you have a few minutes of quiet time (and yes, I can hear you all scoffing at me right now as I type that out - quiet? What's that?) when you watch it.
I wish you all health and safety during this unprecedented time, and thank you for being willing to flex to ensure kids are still able to stay connected to their families.
One last quick note - the children that appear in the video are not in foster care, but do have some thespian aspirations!
That is a great video! In addition to being a respite foster parent I am a filmmaker. I thought the child actors did great. Looks like you didn't script it all out. Good idea! The film showed more than could have been done just in written words. Thanks for making it.