March 2012Vol. 13, No. 2Evaluating FGDM With Native Families

Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is a child-centered family intervention approach that brings together family members and other significant persons to make decisions about the care and case plans for their children. While FGDM is a practical method used in child welfare to increase family engagement and minimize the number of children in foster care, its effectiveness has not been thoroughly examined for American Indian and Native American children and youth, who are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system.

To address this gap, Casey Family Programs collaborated with Lakota Oyate Wakanyeja Owicakiyapi and Sicangu Child and Family Services in South Dakota to develop materials for evaluating participant satisfaction with FGDM meetings. The materials have been gathered into an online toolkit, An Evaluation of Family Group Decision Making With Native American Families. This toolkit contains a number of evaluation surveys and guides, consent and assent forms, and procedural summaries to aid individuals and organizations interested in conducting their own FGDM evaluations.

Casey staff will collect and assess the data from the South Dakota Tribes and plans to release their findings and subsequent recommendations for program improvement to help other Tribal communities replicate this FGDM program to better serve at-risk children and families.

To view the toolkit, An Evaluation of Family Group Decision Making With Native American Families, visit:

http://www.casey.org/resources/publications/pdf/Evaluation-FGDM-Native.pdf (730 KB)