Welcome to the National Center on Family Group Decision Making

Each year there are millions of children and youth who come to the attention of child welfare, juvenile justice, school counselors/social workers, health care providers and other public/private agencies. Traditionally, at best, many systems have worked only with the children and their current caregivers to resolve the concerns that brought them to the agency’s attention, and at worse, have excluded or marginalized the voices of caregivers, children and their extended family systems. Family group decision making (FGDM)—an innovative social reform championed worldwide since the early 1990s—challenges this paradigm and practice, resulting in an inclusive and participatory process that positions family groups to lead decisions about their own members.

Our relational activist colleagues produced this inspiring video called, Making Sense of Family Group Conferencing. Activists, advocates, social workers and researchers across the world bring to life the reasons systems should pursue family group conferences to spark meaningful change. It is a reminder that change happens through personal and informal relationships. It showcases the family group conference as one practice that is the embodiment of relational activism.

Watch the video, featuring Associate Professor and Director of National Center on Family Group Decision Making, Lisa Merkel-Holguin at here.

FGDM processes are carefully managed and crafted to ensure fidelity to the FGDM values and to ensure that those values drive practice. The following Six Core Elements are critical to supporting exemplary practice in FGDM:

1. An independent (i.e., non-case carrying) coordinator is responsible for convening the family group meeting with agency personnel.
2. The child protection agency personnel recognize the family group as their key decision-making partner, and time and resources are available to convene this group.
3. Family groups have the opportunity to meet on their own, without the statutory authorities and other non-family members present, to work through the information they have been given and to formulate their responses and plans.
4. When agency concerns are adequately addressed, preference is given to a family group’s plan over any other possible plan.
5. Follow-up processes after the family group decision making meeting occur until the intended outcomes are achieved, to ensure that the plan continues to be relevant, current and achievable, because family group decision making is not a one-time event but an ongoing, active process.
6. Referring agencies support family groups by providing the services and resources necessary to implement the agreed-upon plans.

FGDM recognizes the importance of involving family groups in decision making about children who need protection or care, and it can be initiated by child welfare agencies whenever a critical decision about a child is required. In FGDM processes, a trained coordinator who is independent of the case brings together the family group and the agency personnel to create and carry out a plan to safeguard children and other family members. FGDM processes position the family group to lead decision making, and the statutory authorities agree to support family group plans that adequately address agency concerns. The statutory authorities also organize service providers from governmental and non-governmental agencies to access resources for implementing the plans. FGDM processes actively seek the collaboration and leadership of family groups in crafting and implementing plans that support the safety, permanency and well-being of their children.

25+ Year Commitment to Family Group Leadership

We are committed to standing up these 8 principles in practice with families:

1. Children have a right to maintain their kinship and cultural connections throughout their lives.
2. Children and their parents belong to a wider family system that both nurtures them and is responsible for them.
3. The family group, rather than the agency, is the context for child welfare and child protection resolutions.
4. All families are entitled to the respect of the state, and the state needs to make an extra effort to convey respect to those who are poor, socially excluded, marginalized, or lacking power or access to resources and services.
5. The state has a responsibility to recognize, support and build the family group’s capacity to protect and care for their young relatives.
6. Family groups know their own histories, and they use that information to construct thorough plans.
7. Active family group participation and leadership is essential for good outcomes for children, but power imbalances between family groups and child protection agency personnel must first be addressed.
8. The state has a responsibility to defend family groups from unnecessary intrusion and to promote their growth and strength.

Resources

Please view the following PDF resources for more information on Family Group Decision Making:

Support for Family Group Decision Making
and Other Family Engagement Approaches

For those wanting to bring FGDM and/or other family engagement approaches to their communities, we provide support thorough program, practice, and policy implementation, co-design, readiness and needs assessment, training, and evaluation.

Implementation Support

Our services first start with working with communities to design an implementation process that is grounded in the principles of implementation science. Our almost 30 years of experience has clearly demonstrated that when FGDM is implemented as an add-on practice, rather than a way of redesigning systems to position family leadership in decision-making, the values of the approach can be difficult to attain. In addition, sustaining this transformative system reform in inhospitable environments is precarious.

Our service array includes strategies that build a community’s capacity to implement, grow and sustain FGDM. This includes: in-person or virtual trainings, community forums or presentations, webinars, consultation, technical assistance, curriculum development on-the-job coaching that can occur either on-site or virtually. We offer continuing education units (CEUs) for many of our in-person trainings.

Kempe-Led Evaluations on Family Group Decision Making

In 2012, the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect assumed leadership for the National Center on Family Group Decision Making, which has mission to build community capacity to implement high-quality, effective FGDM processes that are philosophically congruent with the central values and beliefs of this approach. The National Center on FGDM’s home at the Kempe Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine is very fitting. Almost forty years ago, in 1976, the Kempe Center’s founder, Dr. C. Henry Kempe, promoted the idea that when children are abused or neglected, it is important to work with the entire family.

Since its’ inception in 1999, the National Center on FGDM has been a leader in promoting the integration of FGDM philosophy and processes into system that work with vulnerable children and families. We have supported over 300 communities in the implementation of FGDM, including training and consultation, technical assistance, and coaching and evaluation support. As evidenced by our activities, the National Center on FGDM serves to create links, share resources, and provide various services to broaden knowledge about this way of reorganizing systems to work differently with families. We strive to disseminate this information through this dedicated website on FGDM, and by hosting an annual international conference and webinar series on FGDM and other family engagement approaches.

Our team has served as supervisors, coordinators, facilitators, training and coaching masters, practitioners, and program implementers in, and evaluators of, FGDM. Our team looks forward to supporting your community.

For questions regarding Family Group Decision Making, please contact:

Lisa Merkel-Holguin
Director of the Kempe Center’s National Center on Family Group Decision Making
[email protected]