Building Social Responsibility Through Family Group Conferencing

ABSTRACT

Family Group Conferencing (FGC) is a method of bringing together a family group with service providers to come up with a plan to resolve problems in individual and social functioning. This paper describes FGC from a group development perspective involving planning and convening the single-session meeting. The FGC moves along with the help of a group worker called a coordinator, but its success is based on people-citizens-banding together. The core of the convening stage is when families are left alone, equipped with resources at their disposal, to determine a plan for change. This paper describes FGC, its group work elements, and illustrates how the model helps to build partnerships and social responsibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Family group conferencing
• family group decision-making
• social responsibility