Leave the Family the Driver Seat – Working Differently with Families and Communities

When problems occur in Families and Communities alike, they are first offered to widen their circle, discuss their needs and issues and create within their group a plan for a solution. Independent community coordinators - fellow citizens - facilitate that process. This activating, democratic (everybody has a voice), citizens decision making approach, can be used in almost all situations where people need a plan or a strategy. This works especially when government intervenes in family life as in Child Protection, Mental Health and Evictions. With less cost since Families and Communities bring in also their own resources. Cultural background does not matter when it is about making a plan in one’s own circle. Citizens appreciate the process and their plans are resilient. Moreover, they take responsibility for matters that otherwise would have been disregarded or ignored. More heads, hands and hearts and the social inclusion becomes stronger in the end. Professionals accept and work with safe family plans.

However, the professional system and the family system do not easily mesh, they each have very different structures, ambitions and cultural procedures. An employment driven system-world will not easily mainstream family group conference practice without an explicit mandate. Where there is no legislative prescription the methodology vacuum will be filled by bureaucratic designed procedures.

Conferencing is a strong bridge between the life- and the system-world to create a plan of all together by cooperation and dialogue: Keep family / community in the driver seat when it is about decisions in their own lives. Community conferencing and restorative approaches in schools/prisons/workplace are in line with this development.