Family Group Conferencing: Responses to the Most Commonly Asked Questions

• Main Authors: Lisa Merkel-holguin, Leslie Wilmot
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; New Zealand; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.424.5435; http://centerforchildwelfare.fmhi.usf.edu/kb/trint/Family Group Conferencing-Responses to the Most Commonly Asked Questions.pdf

For more than a decade, the American Humane Association has provided training and technical assistance to thousands of individuals in hundreds of communities. In addition, American Humane’s numerous publications have influenced FGDM practice and policy conceptualization and implementation. One of American Humane’s first publications, “Innovations for Children’s Services for the 21 st Century: Family Group Decision Making and Patch ” (1997), provided an initial framework for FGDM implementation. In addition, it listed numerous questions, with responses based on the experiences and legal frameworks in New Zealand, Newfoundland/Labrador, Canada, and a few U.S. communities. In the past ten years at its trainings, independent of location or audience, American Humane staff typically field many of the same questions about family group conferencing. This document serves as an update to our initial 1997 publication, and provides American Humane’s responses to the most frequently asked questions about family group conferencing. What is the role of the referring worker? The referring worker has numerous roles throughout the family group conference