Family Power: Engaging and Collaborating with Families

by Elizabeth Smull, Joshua Wachtel, Ted Wachtel

Overview

Waves of change have weakened the influence of family in modern societies, yet family remains the most critical element in our social fabric. A new approach for working with families—epitomized by the process of “family group conferencing” (FGC) or “family group decision making” (FGDM)— seeks to strengthen this fabric by enlisting the collective power of families and their communities of care to address their own issues and solve their own problems. This paradigm has implications for professionals in a variety of fields, including social workers, police, court personnel, therapists, youth workers, day-care staff and educators.

Family Power offers practical guidance for engaging and collaborating with families, illustrated by anecdotes gathered from professionals in a range of settings around the world. The authors connect FGC/FGDM with the broader field of restorative practices, which holds that “people are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them.”

Topics include:
• the origins of FGC/FGDM
• the role of the FGC/FGDM conference coordinator
• conference preparation, facilitation and follow-up
• family engagement practices beyond the formal FGC/FGDM process

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014366182
Publisher:	International Institute for Restorative Practices
Publication date:	05/25/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	944,565
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Elizabeth Smull is supervision program coordinator at Community Service Foundation and Buxmont Academy (CSF Buxmont), supervising counselors who provide individual, family
and group counseling for at-risk youth. She also supervises its conferencing program, which offers family group decision making and restorative conferences. She is a therapist for the Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc., running an outpatient group for adults involved in the criminal justice system, as well as a lecturer at the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Graduate School.

Joshua Wachtel is the son of IIRP founding president Ted Wachtel and CSF Buxmont co-founder Susan Wachtel. He attended a CSF Buxmont alternative school as an exchange student in his senior year in high school and taught history and music at CSF Buxmont for four years. He currently resides in western Massachusetts and contributes regularly to the Restorative Practices eForum.

Ted Wachtel is the president and founder of the IIRP. In 1977, Wachtel and his wife, Susan, founded CSF Buxmont, which operate schools, foster group homes and other programs in Pennsylvania, employing restorative practices with delinquent and at-risk youth. Wachtel’s publications include Toughlove, the best-selling book for parents of troubled adolescents, Restorative Justice Conferencing: Real Justice & The Conferencing Handbook, as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles. He has been a guest speaker at conferences on restorative practices around the world.