This issue of Protecting Children discusses the research and case studies on Family Group Decision Making (FGDM), an innovative approach to achieving child safety, permanency, and well-being, which resolves issues through family-centered planning sessions which are monitored and supported by public agency representatives. The first article explores the reasons why social workers have not embraced family-centered decision-making approaches and emphasizes the responsibility of the profession to empower users to participate in child welfare services. The second article reacts to the phenomenon of marginalizing fathers in the child welfare process and suggests methods to increase male attendance and participation in family group conferencing. The third article provides as a detailed case study to demonstrate the effective use of the complementary conferencing process, a combination of the traditional crisis-conference planning followed by a family group conference, to ensure the safety of a newbornchild born addicted to methamphetamines. The fourth article shares a historical perspective on growth of FGDM expansion throughout the Pennsylvania child welfare system and covers the impact on traditional practice and gives some preliminary evaluation results. (IP-CW)
