North Homes in Bemidji Holds Open House, Naming Ceremony for SVSE Program

The new Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange (SVSE) Program at North Homes Children and Family Services in Bemidji has officially opened to the public.

“It’s very much needed,” stated SVSE Program Coordinator Melissa Erwin. “Many people lose their life to intimate partner violence. It can be very scary. You can feel very alone. So we really just want to support people and help them so hopefully they can heal and live better.”

The program provides a space for families who have experienced domestic violence and have different child custody situations.

“They have a current ‘no contact’ order between their parents because of some domestic violence issue, so they can’t be near each other by law,” explained North Homes SVSE Consultant Donald Fairbanks. “So they’re looking for a safe space for children to be exchanged comfortably in the supervision of a certain agent.”

North Homes is much more than just a building or a meeting place. Their main goal is to create a safe environment for both children and parents, and in doing so, there are many safety precautions at the building.

“We’re a locked facility,” explained Erwin. “You have to be let in for appointments. There are cameras and there’s audio. We stagger the arrivals and departures so nobody has to see face to face.”

“We have things that make it a safe space, and we like parents to feel comfortable,” said SVSE Monitor Michelle Nelson. “We want them to feel comfortable. We want them to feel safe – the children, too.”

Along with the open house that showed the public the way that the program and exchanges work, the SVSE program held a ceremony to reveal their new Ojibwe name, Noojimowiiji Giinawind Abinoojiyug.

“We were gifted our Ojibwe name, ‘We Heal Together in the Company of Our Children, so it’s very powerful because we live in a diverse community and we serve a lot of people,” said Erwin. “So having those connections where everybody feels safe and welcome is very important.”

“I myself, being Native American, if I know that the program’s being blessed and honored by Native American people, I’m more susceptible to sit down and be comfortable sitting in a program that has respects to that,” added Fairbanks.

The SVSE program was created as a collaboration between the Beltrami County Domestic Violence Court and North Homes Children and Family Services. It is now officially open to the public and has already started hosting exchanges and supervised visitations.