Who we are

The Centre for Implementation and Development of Family Group Conferences (FGC) was established in January 2017 as part of a joint project of Amalthea (organisation providing social services for families and children) and energeia (generates eco-friendly electricity to raise funds for social and educational activities and implements the projects at the same time).

RK centrum follows up on the work of the FGC team (formerly under Amalthea), which started promoting the idea of introducing FGC in the Czech Republic in April 2013. Back then, FGC were practically unknown even among the professional public in the Czech Republic.

We conduct FGC´s in Pardubice and Hradec Králové Regions and around (four out of 14 regions). The team has 1 CCI, 2 coordinators (employees at the Centre) and 21 independent coordinators trained by us. The main objective is to promote the idea and vision of FGC and pursue development of this approach across the country. RK centrum spreads awareness of FGC by means of discussion sessions, lectures, educational seminars and expert conferences. We have established cooperation with universities and we organise methodological meetings for other organisations providing FGC´s. We deal with motivations of FGC key workers (notably social-legal child protection authorities) to help them understand the meaning and benefits of FGC and make more intense use of them.

History of FGC in our company:

1. 2010: visit to Scotland, first encounter with FGC (Mary MacLeod, CHILDREN 1^st)

2. 2011: Lumos organised a FGC course for Amalthea

3. 2012: FGC methodology issued, inspired by the Scottish model

4. 2013: Pilot project for FGC implementation in social work with endangered families, supported by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MLSA)

5. 2013: visit to Slovakia, Úsmev ako dar (organisation providing FGC)

6. 2014: Involvement in a MLSA project for FGC application based on the Dutch model of Eigen Kracht

7. 2015: Development of evaluation analysis of MLSA project and methodological papers for co-ordinators, administrators and child protection authority staff

8. 2017: RK centrum established

Implementation of FGC in practice faces the following challenges:

1. distrust in the approach as such

2. distrust in the power of the family

3. distrust in the family being able to take over responsibility

4. concerns about loss of control over the case

5. concerns about presence of children at FGC

6. experts’ unwillingness to participate in GFC outside working hours

We are aware that FGC´s advancement will require a change of mindset not only in the social care sphere but across the society. We are strongly encouraged by the fact that we have realized about 90 FGC´s for more than 140 children. Positive feedback from experts and, most importantly, from the families and children continue to convince us that we have set out in the right direction.