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Mosaic Parenting Center

Located in Hartford, the Mosaic Parenting Center (MPC) provides structured support and coaching during family visitation sessions for parents who are working on family reunification after a child has been removed from the home. With trained coaching staff, parents identify issues they wish to improve in their relationships with their children. Through guidance and instruction in child development, anger management, self-control, and other topics, coaching staff help parents change their behaviors with their children and their daily lives.

The MPC program began in January 2022. Within the first month, 32 families were enrolled in the Visit Coaching Process. Families are referred by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) and are typically enrolled for a six-month period. However, each family situation contains complicating factors that may extend the length of out-of-home care well into subsequent six-month visitation plans. The Center has 8 visit rooms and is open 365 days per year. Over 6,600 visits are anticipated annually. 

For information regarding the Mosaic Parenting Center, please contact Kyeesha Clayborne at:

The Need:

In 2019, 4,333 Connecticut children were in foster care. The average length of time a Connecticut child spent in foster care was 24.8 months, compare to the average of 19.8 months by children in the United States. Thirty two percent of those children are between one and five years of age, 20 percent are between six and 10 years, and 48 percent are between the ages of 11-20 years old.

DCF maintains the goal of safe family reunification wherever and whenever possible. Historically, supervised visitation has been used by child welfare agencies to maintain contact between parents and children. As understanding about positive child development has evolved, family visitation has become a vehicle for changing parental behaviors and creating positive attachment between parent and child. When parenting skills are undeveloped, parents are often unable to cope with their children and the many life challenges they encounter. Research shows that strong parenting skills are positively related to family reunification.

The Model:

The Visiting Coaching model provides parents with a structure of support so that each visit with their child is preceded and followed up with planning and feedback with the visit coach. In this way parents define the issues on which they want to focus during their visit with their children. 

During coaching sessions parents learn about positive child development, learn to set limits with their children, and learn how their own reactions to stress and conflict affect their children. Coaches ask questions about what triggers a parent’s response and provide guidance on ways to defuse internal tendencies to react to children in unproductive ways. Coaches can also highlight ways of managing child behavior to minimize an escalating situation before it happens. Providing parents with tools that result in positive outcomes not only brings about family reunification, it also gives a parent a strong sense of efficacy that can be used in their world of work and with other adults.