TY - JOUR
T1 - From Participation to Presence—What Young People Have to Say About Family Group Conferences
AU - Mischel, Netanya
AU - Shemer, Orna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Family Group Conferences (FGCs) is a model for promoting child welfare created to help families in managing concerns related to at-risk children, while respecting cultural contexts, and does so by integrally involving them and their families in solution creation and implementation. This study examines the experiences of 18 at-risk youths in Israel's FGC pilot programme and is part of a larger scale study of the Israeli FGC pilot programme. Thematic analysis identified six key themes related to the perceived success of the conference. The first three—receiving pre-conference information, FGC structure and setting, and perceived support, underscore the importance of implementing the FGC model effectively. The remaining three themes—participants' and their families' characteristics, perceived consequences of participation, and family dynamics, focus on the young people involved. This study emphasizes the importance of both participation and presence among young people, and their equal significance in fostering the undertaking of active roles in FGC. This study found that execution matters, as does calibrating the FGC to the unique characteristics of the at-risk young people and their family in order to promote their participation and presence. This research uniquely amplifies young peoples' voices in FGC in Israel and underscores the necessity of considering both participation and presence in programme design for at-risk youth.
AB - Family Group Conferences (FGCs) is a model for promoting child welfare created to help families in managing concerns related to at-risk children, while respecting cultural contexts, and does so by integrally involving them and their families in solution creation and implementation. This study examines the experiences of 18 at-risk youths in Israel's FGC pilot programme and is part of a larger scale study of the Israeli FGC pilot programme. Thematic analysis identified six key themes related to the perceived success of the conference. The first three—receiving pre-conference information, FGC structure and setting, and perceived support, underscore the importance of implementing the FGC model effectively. The remaining three themes—participants' and their families' characteristics, perceived consequences of participation, and family dynamics, focus on the young people involved. This study emphasizes the importance of both participation and presence among young people, and their equal significance in fostering the undertaking of active roles in FGC. This study found that execution matters, as does calibrating the FGC to the unique characteristics of the at-risk young people and their family in order to promote their participation and presence. This research uniquely amplifies young peoples' voices in FGC in Israel and underscores the necessity of considering both participation and presence in programme design for at-risk youth.
KW - at-risk youth
KW - Family Group Conference
KW - participation
KW - presence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85214843930&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/cfs.13265
DO - 10.1111/cfs.13265
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AN - SCOPUS:85214843930
SN - 1356-7500
JO - Child and Family Social Work
JF - Child and Family Social Work
ER -