Bismarck Tribune

The Village Family Service Center has been awarded a $1.1 million grant to establish and operate Family Group Decision Making throughout North Dakota, officials say.

In a press conference on Monday, Gary Wolsky, president and CEO of the nonprofit Family Group Decision Making, said the grant presents a tremendous opportunity, and that Family Group Decision Making will counter three decades of removing at-risk children from families and homes too soon.

"It's a philosophical change," Wolsky said. "Removing children should be a last resort."

He said that Family Group is "good for kids, good for families, and good for taxpayers."

Family Group Decision Making, a concept that originated in New Zealand, is a process that brings together immediate family members, extended family, close friends, community specialists and other interested people to improve the care and protection of a child at risk of being placed outside the home.

Lorrie Meier, a licensed professional clinical counselor at Lutheran Social Service in Moorhead, Minn., said Family Group is a different kind of approach that recognizes that a child should be in the home of parents if at all possible.

"FGDC gets extended family more involved with the parents of an at-risk child," she said. "It's an effort to reconnect families to their extended families."

Paul Ronningen, director of the Children and Family Services Division at the North Dakota Department of Human Services, said that although the number of children in North Dakota has declined by 30,000 over the past five years, the foster care population has increased by 17 percent, demonstrating the need for a new approach.

Wolsky said that increased use of crystal methamphetamine has been a factor in the growth of the foster care population, but alcohol is the largest contributing factor, causing twice the intervention rate of meth.

Ronningen said Family Group is a cooperative effort between The Village Family Service Center, the state of North Dakota, tribal governments, and the court system.

Rich Kessler, founder of the Minnesota Center for Conflict Resolution, said that research by the American Humane Society suggests that Family Group programs, when compared to traditional child welfare practices, are more likely to keep children safe, result in more permanent placements, decrease the need for foster care, maintain family bonds and increase overall family well-being.

"There is definitely evidence that suggests FGDM is successful," Kessler said. "Families have an immense capacity to get better, and studies indicate that children are staying a shorter amount of time in foster care, as a result of FGDM, or are not going to foster care at all."

In 1953, Archibald Granville Bush, chairman of the executive committee of the 3M Co., and his wife, Edyth Bassler Bush, established the Bush Foundation to serve as an independent grantmaker with a special focus on the needs of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

In 2004, the foundation provided grants and fellowships of about $25.8 million to 157 organizations and 48 individuals. Since 1953, the foundation has provided more than $650 million in grants and fellowships to stengthen the work of nonprofit organizations and the development of individuals.

The foundation's income derives from assets given by Bush in the early 1970s, primarily 3M stock. Since then the investment portfolio has been diversified and has grown to more than five times its original value.

The mission of The Village Family Service Center, a 100-year-old organization, is to "improve the quality of life through services designed to strengthen individuals, families and organizations."

The Village Family Service Center programs include adoption, counseling, and family-based services, as well as pregnancy counseling, credit counseling, mentoring - through the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, the Attachment and Development Program, and the The Village Business Institute.