It takes a village to raise a child

Stanislaus County, California, has adopted the term Family Decision Meetings (FDMs) to describe their family group decision making process. This term was developed through a series of collaborative meetings between community partners and the agency as an expression of our process. The FDM process is not a new concept for many ethnic minorities. They have traditionally used this process among themselves. Child welfare agencies are beginning to utilize various forms of family meetings to create innovative solutions to child abuse and neglect concerns. One method of accomplishing this is by encouraging pivotal people to expand communal awareness of FDMs as an option when resolving familial issues. This article identifies the implementation of FDMs in Stanislaus County with five minority groups (African American, Cambodian, Hmong, Latino, and Native American). The information is presented from the perspective of social workers and other service providers. There are important factors to consider with FDMs, such as the types of food offered, varying hierarchical roles within ethnic family structures, primary language, and finally, the meeting's locale. The purpose of such detail is to reflect and respect the rich history of different cultures by having the families educate the service providers, resulting in FDM processes that mirror diversity.