Child visitation center closure leaves families in lurch

The Utah Attorney General's Office abruptly closed a child visitation center the day before Thanksgiving, leaving dozens of families with histories of domestic violence no way to have supervised holiday visits during a stressful, volatile time of year.

"The timing is unfortunate, but I wouldn't call it a surprise attack," said Assistant Utah Attorney General Brent Berkley, who oversees domestic violence resources.

Berkley wouldn't say why his office shut down federally funded All-R-Kids Visitation and Exchange Center, other than it "wasn't meeting stated goals."

The closure worries domestic violence prevention advocates.

"This opens up huge problems for these high-risk families who will be doing exchanges during the holidays," said Alissa Black, a Murray police officer who has served in several capacities addressing domestic violence-related issues. "These kinds of stressors will not be good for the abusers or for the families."

Until last week, All-R-Kids director Carolyn Rowland was preparing to move the Murray center to a new, larger space next month. The closure put her and four other employees out of work.

"We had no idea," she said Monday. "This is a complete shock."

The closure impacts the delicate arrangements made for children in families where domestic abuse has occurred. In some cases, one parent has a restraining order against the other, so the children are delivered by one parent to the center and picked up or met by the other parent.

Last week, the center supervised 30 visits or exchanges. Now, there's a sign on its door telling clients services are not available. A phone message offers an apology and directs callers to Brandy Farmer at the Attorney General's Office. Farmer coordinates the program. She declined to answer questions about All-R-Kids.

"The holiday times bring out the emotional aspects of these relationships," said Judy Kasten Bell, executive director of the Utah Domestic Violence Council. "But there is no good time to lose a resource like this that provides safe exchanges for these families."

All-R-Kids or ARK opened in October 2005 as Utah's first nonprofit, supervised child visitation and exchange center specializing in domestic violence. It served as a neutral exchange point for children or as a place for children to visit with a parent under supervision.