PROGRAM GUIDE - American Humane Association

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Honouring the Circle, Connections and Wisdom Family or Agency: Who’s Got the Lead, Why, and Should We Take Pause in the Advancement of Family Engagement Approaches in Child Welfare Decision Making? TRACK 3 Collaboration and Implementation Within and Across Systems LEVEL Michael Doolan, American Humane Association Fellow, Christchurch, New Zealand; and Lisa Merkel-Holguin, American Humane Association, Englewood, Colo., USA Over the last two decades and across the globe, child welfare agencies have begun a transformative journey in deciding who makes decisions about children and how these decisions are made. With a plethora of models from which to choose, and the many points at which these family meetings are implemented, there may be reason to pause and reflect on the purposes of agency-led and family-led decision making. Both are necessary and they complement each other. The questions become when each approach should occur, whether agencies propagate agency-led decision-making processes under the disguise of family-led language, and how to create the transformative journey to anti-oppressive practice. Come participate in a lively discussion. Intermediate Engagement and Outcomes: Two Different Things? Findings and Implications from a Cochrane Collaboration Systematic Review of Family Group Decision Making TRACK 4 Implementation: Building a Strong and Sustainable Foundation Aron Shlonsky and Michael Saini, University of Toronto, ON, Canada This presentation describes findings from the first systematic review of the effectiveness of FGC in cases of child maltreatment. While the findings are limited due to the small number of highly controlled studies conducted on FGC, the main results are that FGC does not appear to decrease maltreatment recurrence, entries to care, or any other measured outcome. Discussion of these results will centre on the appropriate use of FGC, what it can be reliably counted on to provide, and will extend into ways of improving the delivery of FGC, associated services and outcome evaluations. LEVEL Intermediate Using the Story: Helping Everyone on Their Journey TRACK 6 Aboriginal Practices LEVEL Foundational Geraldine Standup, Elder, and Jane Harrison, Anishnawbe Health Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada Anishnawbe Health Centre will present a holistic approach of working with families that includes mind, spirit, body and emotions and focuses on sharing and understanding. This is a group journey led by a facilitator, elder, and healer, who provides a traditional teaching or story. The teaching or story is used by the individuals in the group, who each can form their own understanding of the story and then share that understanding with the circle. Not goal directed, this exercise is about sharing and relationships, with each person speaking to the circle from their heart. The elder closes with thanks and a prayer. In this intervention, the work happens in the circle, and what is shared in the circle stays there. This frees people to speak about themselves with honesty, openness and trust. 1 st Canadian Conference for Family Group Conferencing 22
Honouring the Circle, Connections and Wisdom Original Talking Circles TRACK 6 Aboriginal Practices LEVEL Intermediate Charlene Avalos, Shirley Gillis-Kendall and Kathy Kneegan, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Between the years 2000 to 2003, the team members of the Mooka’am Program at Native Child and Family Services of Toronto (NCFS) developed and implemented a Native Family Healing Model. This model is based on the philosophy that the healing needs of the clients can best be served by weaving the use of effective contemporary therapeutic techniques with Aboriginal traditional teachings, values and practices. Through a process of participation, observation and dialogue that involved the entire Mooka’am team, NCFS developed a clearer understanding of how best to work with Aboriginal families in a healing capacity. In 2004, NCFS became a provincially mandated child welfare agency. Through the process of becoming a governmentmandated agency, this supportive, clinical and culturally effective Aboriginal service program for Native families changed. Today, members of the original Mooka’am team at NCFS are revisiting the Native Family Healing Model in order to see how it can be used as a model for integration between healing and child welfare work. This new program is called the Original Dispute Process. In this presentation, the facilitators would like to share this story, the lessons learned, and the work in progress. Whu Neeh Nee (Guiders of Our People): Building Models of Decision Making that Match the Needs of Communities They Serve: A Carrier Sekani First Nation Example TRACK 6 Aboriginal Practices Travis Holyk and Warner Adam, Carrier Sekani Family Services, Prince George, BC, Canada This presentation will focus on the processes that Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS) used to successfully implement a Carrier-based model of FGC. In particular, the presenters will discuss the research completed regarding traditional practices and subsequent training of facilitators that make Carrier Sekani practice distinct. The process provides a focus on rebuilding families and communities devastated by years of adversarial contact with the western court system, attempting to provide opportunity to resolve conflict in culturally appropriate ways and directly involve the community in decision making. LEVEL Foundational 1 st Canadian Conference for Family Group Conferencing 23
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PROGRAM GUIDE - American Humane Association

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