Increasing the cultural responsiveness of family group conferencing.

Diversity has greatly enhanced the richness of our society. Yet child welfare programs have not fully examined or used this richness to create programs that are inclusive and respectful. Human services organizations need to establish culturally competent programs that recognize and use worldviews to guide practice. "The question is no longer one of 'whether' to provide culturally competent services to clients, but rather 'how' can we do it best" (Asamoah, 1996, p. 1). In a multi-cultural society best practice is moving beyond self-awareness and cultural sensitivity to a point where attention to cultural knowledge is mainstreamed and service delivery systems and treatment models are adapted to fit diverse client communities. Reflecting national trends, North Carolina struggles to address child abuse and neglect and their frequent co-occurrence with domestic violence (Edleson, 1999; North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, NC Child Advocacy Institute, 1999; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1997) while seeking permanency for children within strict federal timelines (Adoption and Sale Families Act of 1997 [P.L. 105-89]). As one response, the North Carolina Division of Social Services adopted as policy the family group conferencing service model and funded the North Carolina Family Group Conferencing (NC-FGC) Project (Pennell & Weil, 2000). The NC-FGC Project sought to enhance the cultural responsiveness of child welfare interventions across the state by introducing a partnership-building model that highlights the importance of the family's cultural knowledge for safeguarding children and other family members. The project investigators further recognized that to effect a culturally responsive program, guidance was required from diverse groups in North Carolina (Waites, Macgowan, Pennell, Weil, & Carlton-LaNey, 2000). This article reports the research undertaken to augment the cultural application of FGC in North Carolina. The research used a community-based program development approach to assess and improve the cultural responsiveness of family group conferencing for three groups in North Carolina: African Americans, American Indians, and Latinos/Hispanics. To enhance the cultural relevance and acceptability of the model, focus groups were used to provide guidance from these groups on how to develop partnerships to protect, nurture, and safeguard children and other family members by using the FGC model. Family Group Conferencing Model The FGC model is based on Maori culture (Love, 2000) and is similar to practices in many indigenous cultures and to models promoted by social workers (Burford & Hudson, 2001). FGC was first legislated in New Zealand after dissent by its indigenous people against Pakeha (European-descent), expert-driven approaches, seen as undermining their kinship structure and cultural identity (Rangihau, 1986). Maori protests converged with economic reforms on the role of the state and community demands for greater professional accountability to clients. The 1989 legislation mandated the use of FGC for child welfare and youth justice and, in so doing, sanctioned lowering reliance on legal and protective interventions and advancing the principles of family responsibility, children's rights, cultural affirmation, and community-state partnerships (Hassall, 1996). Given indigenous influences, "family" was broadly defined to encompass immediate family, relatives, and tribal groupings. Before child welfare could proceed to court, the legislation stipulated that in most cases an FGC had to be called first. The conference was to provide the larger family group with an opportunity to develop a plan to resolve the child welfare concerns. The FGC model sought to deprofessionalize child welfare decision making while safeguarding the interests of the child. Checks-and-balances were built in by having the family group formulate a plan that had to be approved by the protective authorities before implementation. …