Lake Co. opening family center

Many children of divorced parents are familiar with this scenario: It's time for your weekend visit with dad, so mom drives you to the local mall or fast-food restaurant for a public and often stressful custody exchange.

Sometimes parental strife is so bad, prompted by domestic abuse or other factors, the meetings must be at police stations.

That's why three agencies have teamed to create the Family Visitation Center of Lake County. Located in storefront space near downtown Mundelein, the center aims to be a safe place for parents to exchange custody of their children.

The only facility of its kind in Lake County, the center also will provide supervision for parents whose visitation of their children requires overseers.

“There's nothing more important than the safety of our children,” Mundelein Village Administrator John Lobaito said Wednesday during a well-attended open house at the facility. “We're behind this 100 percent. We think it's great.”

The center is at 541 N. Lake St., just south of Route 176. It's set to open in mid-November with a full-time director and three part-time employees.

Lake County officials teamed with the 19th Circuit Court and the anti-domestic violence group A Safe Place to open the center. Planning started about four years ago, said Phyllis DeMott, A Safe Place's executive director.

The project was funded by a nearly $350,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department, center Director Nila Grahl said.

Its existence will mean Lake County families won't have to exchange children at area police stations or McDonald's restaurants, DeMott said.

Instead, children will meet their parents in a brightly colored playroom stocked with board games, videos, books, toys and dolls.

And parents who have been the victim of domestic violence won't even have to go face-to-face with their ex-spouses at the center. Staffers will escort children to and from the meetings, officials said.

The center's phones have been ringing steadily as word has spread of the upcoming opening, she said.

“I think of the phrase, ‘Build it and they will come,'” DeMott said. “That is certainly what is happening.”

Most of the center's business will be the result of court orders or referrals, Grahl said. But parents looking for safe places for custody exchanges can call on their own, she said.

For more information, call A Safe Place at (847) 731-7165.