ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between two approaches to working with families and communities: patch and family group decision making (FGDM). The new paradigm for working with families represented by family group conferencing and patch involves social workers and other professionals learning from the cultures and building on the strengths of the communities with which they are engaged. It involves developing partnerships in which the wisdom, knowledge, skills, and resources available to professionals are joined with those of families and communities to protect children. Patch teams that have absorbed the principles of community-based practice engage in social work that seeks to be more proactive and preventive, and less reactive and crisis-oriented than traditional practices. Behind the negotiation between social worker and family group that are part of the conferencing process, there also stands a negotiation between child welfare authorities and the social and cultural context in which the conferencing takes place.
