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Using Family Mapping Tools to Enhance Outcomes for Tribal Members under Community Supervision

"This fact sheet is designed to serve as an overview of two family tools that help people visualize the connections within families and the connections families have to their community: genograms and ecomaps. This fact sheet also provides ideas for tribal probation officers about how they can incorporate family mapping tools into their work. Tribal probation officers may find that family mapping tools are useful for a number of reasons. Drawing a family map with a client can encourage them to open up and further develop a cooperative relationship with you as their probation officer. Seeing family and other connections represented visually can help probationers recognize links that may not otherwise be apparent to them. Visual tools can also be a source of pride, as probationers can chart changes to their maps, consolidate information about key contacts, and identify the supports they can access" (p. 2). A genomap is basically a family tree which shows the relationships between members in a probationer's family. An ecomap visually shows the links of resources and service providers that exist outside the family that can offer assistance to a probationer. The ways to make both of these family maps are provided.