ABSTRACT

Conferencing holds enormous potential to strengthen communities through collective responsibility and collective accountability—in a caring context. Conferencing creates opportunities to strengthen the sense of mutual accountability and encourages collective responsibility for the welfare of all children and families. Consequently, conferencing provides an opportunity to strengthen and reinforce key characteristics of strong, vibrant communities. Conferencing can be done in ways that weaken community. If the values guiding the process are not consistent with the values of a healthy community, then the process will undermine community. Behavior in a community must be kept within certain bounds, even in the privacy of the home. Conferencing creates an opportunity to look beyond resolution of the specific incident to reinforce acceptable standards of behavior for the community as a whole. Democracy is undermined by dependence upon professional classes to analyze and solve community problems. Conferencing moves responsibility and authority back to community members, including the family and their supporters.