Karlis Family Center Helps Strengthen Family Communications

In a recent Rocky Mountain News story, a Colorado Springs attorney was arrested after an Amber Alert was issued for him and his two daughters. Brighton police served the father with a summons for child abuse and obstruction of justice. The Amber Alert was issued after the father failed to return his children to their mother as required by the couple’s custody orders. The Amber alert followed a week of what was described as harsh language and bitter feelings between the recently divorced couple.

News stories like this remind us of just how important the programs and services at Family Tree Karlis Family Center are. Karlis Family Center provides a safe environment along with experienced staff to address child visitation and custody issues.

The Smith Family – Karlis Family Center clients
The Smiths had a short relationship and separated after Ms. Smith found out she was pregnant. She gave birth to a boy and the child resided with his mother. Later, the father filed for a paternity test so that hopefully he could start visiting with his son, pay child support and have unsupervised visits.

The judge awarded the father visitation rights and eventually placed the child in his custody. It is unclear how much contact the child had with his mother during this time. In 2002, the family began to use Karlis Family Center for supervised parenting-time services. These services provide for a trained counselor to observe all interactions between the child and parent during their visit. The counselor helped the Smiths to improve their communication and parenting skills.

Fortunately, Karlis Family Center will continue to work with the Smith family emphasizing that the child’s needs come first. It is vitally important that parents experiencing the difficulties and challenges of marital conflict, separation and divorce are able to access services like those available at the Karlis Family Center. When they do, and when they are successful, situations like those which led to the issuance of an Amber Alert for the Colorado Springs family can be avoided