CLARKSBURG, W.Va (WBOY) — The Harrison County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children Program partnered with Sacred Hearts to create a visitation center for families.

The visitation center is located at the Harrison County CASA Program, located inside the Harrison County Board of Education building. This center consists of three new rooms including, a kitchen, common room, and playroom. Sacred Heart, along with Harrison County CASA, wanted to provide a safe space for families to mend trauma and heal.

CASA is in charge of abuse and neglect cases within the county and said that they were seeing the gap in having a safe place for families to meet. The two organizations looked for another solution inside the community and could not find one, so they made one.

As of March 14, the visitation space is offered on weekdays. The program is now serving family and circuit court, in which if visitation is needed, CASA can go ahead and plug in appointments when contacted.

Alisha Madia, Executive Director at CASA, told 12 News why it is important to be able to offer this space to the families of Harrison County. She said, “when there’s not adequate space, we see families that are, you know, hanging out at the mall or – or various, you know, restaurants and things just to be able to see and spend time with one another. And also for our visitation supervisor to be able to really assess how that family is doing and see where work needs done or they can help them so that ultimately they can overcome what brought them to the system to begin with.”

As for upcoming events and fundraisers, CASA will be hosting its tenth annual “CASA Superhero 5K.” It will take place on May 13, with registration beginning at 7 a.m., and the race beginning at 8:30 a.m. in White Oaks. Anyone interested in registering can do so by visiting this link.