European exchanges on Family Group Conferencing Erasmus Project

Project Title

European exchanges on Family Group Conferencing

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; Inclusion – equity; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Faced with the intensification and diversification of forms of precariousness, our society today is experiencing a profound renewal of the social question. To tackle these new challenges, Gironde Departmental Council, a local authority which employs about 600 social workers, and 300 health professionals, has conducted a substantive work for a decade to guarantee a public service adapted to new needs. With this in mind, Gironde Departmental Council is committed to rethink social work with the objectives of improving the service provided and placing the citizens at the heart of social intervention to make them actors of their life course. To do this, Gironde Departmental Council is interested in developing innovative work practices advocating a better participation of users as the Family Group Conferencing method that Gironde Departmental Council decided to experiment on its territory in the field of social action.

The Family Group Conferencing (FGC) method is derived from Maori traditions in New Zealand. It has developed since the 1980s in Australia and the United States, and since about twenty years in Europe. It remains largely unknown in France, even if, other departmental councils such as Le Nord and Ardèche have experimented it and that this method is being expended.

The family group conferencing is a collective decision-making process that mobilizes the capacities of the family and the local social network on the solving of a specific problem. It is based on the concept of the empowerment; whose principle is to restore power to the family. The method can be adapted to any public, regardless of the problematic: intra-family relations, child protection, disability, old age, difficulties in school life, fight against precariousness, housing, social and professional integration etc. The family group conferencing method is initiated at the family’s request. It is prepared with the help of a neutral and independent coordinator trained in this role. The aim for the family is to find its own solution by collectively making an action plan with the people present in the FGC.

In order to broaden this experimentation in Gironde, Gironde Departmental Council has decided to develop a European project on the exchange of Family Group Conferencing good practices as a training tool for social workers. This two years Erasmus+ project, has involved three European partners alongside Gironde Departmental Council, who are more experienced in the practice of the Family Group Conferencing method: Tulip Foundation (Bulgaria), Family Rights Group (UK) and Bezirksamt von Neukölln, Berlin (Germany).

Three training mobilities were carried out in each of the partner countries in 2018. Having brought together more than 300 participants (social workers, experts, academics, public decision-makers, elected representatives), who share reflections, methodologies and know-how between European partners around the practice of the FGC. The project ended with a European seminar organized in Gironde on April 11, 2019, which brought together a panel of European, national and departmental speakers for a wide sharing of experiences and testimonials on the practice of family conferences. A review of the European project and Gironde experimentation, as well as an inventory of practices in France were presented. This closing seminar, open widely to social work professionals, local authorities, associations, and various partners interested in FGC was an opportunity to develop an emerging dynamic in France and bring together current initiatives. It gathered more than 300 participants, 5 other departments including Le Nord and Ardèche who came to share their experiences in the field.

This Erasmus+ project had many local impacts in Gironde and in France. It made it possible to compare the results from the Gironde experiment with confirmed experiences, to evaluate the relevance of the method, the added values ​​and the brakes (for families, social workers, coordinators, and the institution), and to feed the reflection on the project of organization in progress for a generalization of the method on the scale of the Gironde territory. It was an opportunity to promote an emerging dynamic in France and to help establish an interdepartmental network of family conferences at the national level. Finally, the ERASMUS+ project encouraged Gironde Departmental Council to join the FGC European network and participate in the next meeting of the network in 2020.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 146945,01 Eur

Project Coordinator

DEPARTEMENT DE LA GIRONDE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Bezirksamt Neukölln von Berlin
• FONDACIJA LALE
• Family Rights Group