Family Group Decision-Making, (FGDM), in Los Angeles County, California was established by a broad coalition of private and government agencies led by the Supervising Judge of the Dependency Court. The FGDM Committee includes representatives from the Department of Children and Family Services, Dependency Court Legal Services, Court Appointed Special Advocates, the Dependency Court Mediation Project, the Office of the County Counsel, the Department of Mental Health, the County Board of Supervisors, the Commission for Children and Families, local schools of social work, and community service providers.

In January 1998, the FGDM Committee had created a FGDM pilot project within the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) that was guided by an Oversight Committee. The Oversight Committee consisted of representatives from the FGDM Committee that devoted significant time, resources and financial support to developing and implementing the FGDM pilot project. This group met regularly to guide and monitor the progress of FGDM in Los Angeles County. Seed funding for the pilot project was provided by the Child Victims in Court Partnership (CIVIC), a non-profit organization that supports programs for children under dependency court jurisdiction, and by a Court Improvement Grant from the Judicial Council of California. DCFS  also committed resources to the continuation of the pilot project.

Families were referred to the FGDM pilot project by social workers at any time after DCFS had investigated a report of child abuse and or neglect. Emergency Response Workers, Family Maintenance and Reunification Workers, and Permanency Planning Workers all had utilized FGDM. The social workers that had participated in FGDM were impressed with the plans created by the families and encouraged by the cooperative nature of the FGDM process. California State University Los Angeles conducted a research/evaluation of the FGDM project and have found that the families have appreciated and been pleased with the FGDM process. Participating families have communicated that they felt respected and listened to in the FGDM process.

The Oversight Committee's positive initial experience, together with the national data on the enormous success of FGDM in both small and large communities, had convinced the committee that making FGDM available to all DCFS social workers would drastically improve the delivery of child welfare services to families in Los Angeles County. As a direct result of the positive feedback by families, based on gathered data by  California State University Los Angeles, and other stake holders such as DCFS CSW line staff and Dependency court, it was enthusiastically decided to graduate the FGDM pilot project into a county wide program. 

Therefore, in January 2001 FGDM became a full fledged LA County wide program. Since January 2001, FGDM has conducted hundreds of family conferences in support of the  children and families we service. In June 2002 FGDM also began offering a new and innovative style of conferencing called an Emancipation Conference. This specialized type of conference is specifically designed to provide an emancipating youth/young adult, with the opportunity to design a comprehensive emancipation plan, with the participating support of his family, friends and potential and actual service providers. 

We at FGDM are very happy to be a  permanent program on the DCFS landscape of services for our children and families, and enthusiastically look forward to the future as we continue to strive to provide the very best family and emancipation conferences possible, to help meet the needs our children and families.