Ontario ADR Professional Development

It’s like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole

date: 3/1/2021

speakers: Nancy Freymond, PhD, MSW & Marilee Sherry, MSW, RSW

abstract:

For nearly 25 years, Family Group Conferencing (FCC)/Family Group Decision Making (FGDM), has been available inside Ontario’s child welfare systems to support families in creating solutions for their challenges. Although collective, family-led decision-making is widely accepted as a good idea, the reality is that FGC/FGDM remains at the margins of mainstream child welfare service delivery, persistently under-resourced and under-utilized. Why? Through the lens of practitioner experience, this workshop explores the deeply embedded, taken-for-granted colonial codes of child welfare service delivery (the square hole) that lock FGC/FGDM (the round peg) at the margins. We are developing critical insights into how the foundational tenets of the child welfare enterprise are disconnected from FGC/FGDM’s core values and the implications of this disconnection. We invite participants to join us in thinking about what it will take to shift FGC/FGDM from the margins to the center.