Resource Library: Cultural Competence

SUPPORTING BLACK FAMILIES

INTRODUCTION

What approaches are needed to enhance the social and economic functioning of African American families? Unfortunately, many observers wrongly believe that the problems of inner-city families are intractable. Conventional accounts of black families in the news media, for example, devote considerable space to citing many negative statistics to document the severity of the crisis. By blaming the victim--attributing the crisis to internal deficits or weaknesses such as female-headed families and poor work ethic rather than to external constraints such as racism, exodus of industries from inner-cities, and so on--they focus on identifying problems and not on generating solutions.

A strategy that identifies solutions and promising strategies for aiding black families is desperately needed. And, the most effective strategy for strengthening African American families is to build on and reinforce their strengths. One must first identify positive coping skills and then provide examples of public policies and social programs that can strengthen them.

Back in 1972, in *The Strengths of Black Families*, I identified five assets of African American families: strong achievement orientation, strong work orientation, flexible family roles, strong kinship bonds, and strong religious orientation. Although these characteristics can be found among other racial and ethnic groups, they have manifested themselves differently in black families because of their unique history of slavery and racial oppression. One strategy to help family support practitioners work more effectively with black families, is to build on these strengths.
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STRIVING TO ACHIEVE

Research reports have repeatedly found that, although black children achieve lower scores than white children on standardized tests, black children often have higher educational and occupational aspirations than white children of similar economic status. Some social scientists, puzzled by these findings, sought to explain this result in terms of pathology. Since these analysts characterized the lofty goals as too high and unrealistic, they conclude that it is necessary for educators to lower aspirations to prevent African American children from becoming frustrated as adults.

Unfortunately, many studies have revealed that, as bright innercity children advance through the public school system, they encounter "misguidance" counselors who lower their aspirations and self-esteem to such an extent that they drop out in record numbers. What is needed are educators who help inner-city children to attain their high aspirations.

One of the most successful educational initiatives that reinforces the high-achievement orientation of inner-city children and their parents is the Head Start program. Since its inception in the late 1960s, this preschool program includes parental participation as an integral component, and has encouraged higher achievement among thousands of low-income children.

Another effective educational program for black youth is College Here We Come, whose goal has been to raise the educational and occupational horizons of young people residing in public housing.

This initiative was launched in 1974 by Kimi Gray and other residents of the Kenilworth-Parkside public housing complex in southeastern Washington, D.C., and has provided a broad range of social and economic support, helping more than 600 low-income youth to attend college.
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STRONG WORK ETHIC

Contrary to popular belief, most inner-city families have a strong work ethic. Although the American public believes that the majority of African American families are on welfare, National Census Bureau data reveal that only one-fifth of these families received public assistance in the 1980s. In fact, only half of all *poor* black families received support from welfare.

Even so, numerous innovative grassroots programs have developed to reduce welfare dependency. Some of the most effective programs have come from resident management corporations of public housing. These groups have demonstrated that they can maintain safe, pleasant, and comfortable living environments more efficiently and cost-effectively than local housing authorities.

As a result of tenant management, vandalism has declined sharply, as have welfare dependency, school drop-outs, teenage pregnancy, and unemployment. At the same time, building repairs and rent collections have risen, indicating an increase in neighborhood stability.

One key to the success of public housing is the hiring of former welfare recipients to operate small local businesses:
maintenance, day care, laundry, tailoring, barbering, beauty care, catering, thrift shops, and reverse commuting services.

Examples of effective public housing initiatives abound throughout the nation: Bromly-Heath in Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts; Cochran Gardens in St. Louis, Missouri; Kenilworth-Parkside in Washington, D.C.; B.W. Cooper in New Orleans, Louisiana; and A. Harry Moore Houses in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Several innovative programs have been developed to enhance the entrepreneurial abilities of inner-city youth. These programs attempt to transfer the superb self-employment skills manifested by young drug-dealers to legal activities. For example, the Educational Training and Enterprise Center (ED-TEC) in Camden, N.J. has helped of hundreds of youth create businesses in such areas as food vending, maintenance, security, and sales. And a former police officer has developed a mini-mall at Woodson J.H.S. in Washington, D.C. that consists of about ten small businesses-operated by the junior high school students.
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FLEXIBLE FAMILY ROLES

In African American families, mothers assume some of the traditional roles of fathers, fathers assume roles of mothers, and children performing some parental functions for their younger siblings. Some social scientists have characterized black fathers who perform female household chores, such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare as being henpecked by matriarchs. Yet this role adaptability has contributed to the stability and advancement of two-parent black households.

Role flexibility is most evident in the disproportionate number of African American families headed by women. Traditionally, single-parent families headed by women are depicted as broken or pathological, while two-parent families are described as intact or healthy. However, such characterizations erroneously equate family structure with family functioning. Research studies have revealed that many one-parent families are more intact or cohesive than many two-parent families: data on child abuse, battered wives, and runaway children indicate higher rates among two-parent families in suburban areas than among single-parents in inner-city communities.

Many community-based programs designed to strengthen the functioning of single parents have been established in inner cities. One exemplary effort is the Sisterhood of Black Single Mothers, founded by Daphne Busby in the Bedford-Stuyvesant

section of Brooklyn, New York. Since its inception in 1973, the Sisterhood has demonstrated that the circumstances of low-income single mothers can be improved markedly by addressing their needs from a holistic perspective, by enhancing their sense of self worth, and by developing their skills in such areas as parenting, male-female relations, education, and employment. This program, which started by helping the single mothers to complete their high-school equivalency, has motivated many of them to attend and graduate from college. Programs targeted to young single black mothers abound across the nation.

Numerous communities have developed programs to enhance the parenting skills of black fathers. One of the earliest programs, launched by the National Urban League (NUL) is targeted to adolescent and young adult black males. Primary objectives of the NUL program are to promote responsible sexuality, to prevent out of-wedlock pregnancies, and to teach participants to assume appropriate parental responsibility for their children. These programs, which were implemented by Urban League affiliates across the country, provide a wide range of educational, training, and support services. Another comprehensive program for African American fathers is the National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family Development founded by Charles Ballard in Cleveland, Ohio.
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KINSHIP BONDS

One of the most important sources of mobility in African American families has been strong kinship networks. According to conventional wisdom, the extended family has declined sharply in urban areas. However, research studies continue to reveal that the proportion of black extended families continued to increase during the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1970 and 1980, black extended-family households rose from 23 percent to 28 percent.

Preliminary data suggests that, in 1990, two out of five black households in 1990 were three-generational.

Social-welfare policies and family support programs must adapt to this reality and utilize kinship networks. African American extended families often extend beyond a household and may include significant persons who are not related by blood or marriage.

There is a vital need to understand the wide range of support services provided by kinship networks in the following areas:

1. Day care.
   About two-fifths of working African Americans depend on responsible relatives for day-care services at moderate costs. It was not long ago that federal income regulations penalized families who relied on kin for day care by only allowing childcare deductions for children who were cared for by non-relatives. Fortunately, more enlightened policies exist today that permit childcare deductions for these providers as well.
2. Services to unwed mothers.
   Nine out of ten babies born to black teenagers live in three-generational households. Research studies have found that adolescent mothers who have the support of kin are more likely to avoid welfare dependency and to achieve healthy development of their children than teenage mothers who are forced to raise their children without assistance from relatives.
3. Informal Adoption.
   The informal adoption of children has been a major support in African American families since antiquity. This is most often manifested by grandparents or aunts and uncles taking in grandchildren or nieces and nephews to live with them for short or long periods of time. In fact, the number of informally adopted children living with relatives has risen sharply among African American families over the past two decades. Between 1970 and 1990, the number of all black children living in the households of kin rose from 1.3 million (or 13 percent) to 1.6 million (or 16 percent).
4. Foster care.
   Despite the fact that black families provide extensive informal adoption and foster-care services, many child-welfare agencies have not targeted, until recently, kinship networks for such services. There is an urgent need for public policies that provide greater incentives to relatives for childcare and to use kinship networks as a major resource for placement.

Many community-based groups provide innovative adoption and family preservation services which reinforce kinship networks.

One of the oldest groups is Homes for Black Children (HBC), which was founded by Sydney Duncan in Detroit, Michigan during the late

1960s. Alarmed by the large numbers of black children who were available for adoption but who were languishing in foster care, HBC has been determined to demonstrate that there are more than enough families in the African American community willing and able to provide wholesome environments for children who needed homes. Over a ten-year span, HBC has found adoptive homes for over 700 black children. HBC now places greater emphasis on family preservation to prevent unnecessary placements in foster care.
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RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION

As the most independent and self-sufficient institution in the African American community, the black church currently provides a wide range of social services directed toward strengthening families and enhancing the development of children and youth. To increase their assistance to inner-city families, increasing numbers of black churches have set up Quality of Life Centers to address the needs of all family members from a holistic perspective.

Services provided by such centers include day care, preschool programs, nurseries, parenting education, family counseling, remedial education, family planning, substance-abuse prevention, employment training, recreational activities, and services targeted to young males and females. One of the most prominent centers is the Shiloh Family Life Center of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington D.C.

Black churches have historically assisted orphans and homeless children. Most of the early black orphanages were founded by black religious institutions. Recently, the disproportionate number of African American children in foster care has alarmed many ministers. The adoption of two adolescent males in 1980 by a black Catholic priest, Father George Clement of Holy Angels Church in Chicago, dramatized the plight of black children in foster care. Subsequently, Father Clement founded the One Church, One Child program, in which each black church made a commitment to adopt at least one foster child. This program has been replicated by churches throughout the nation.

Increasing evidence reveals that African Americans with strong religious orientations have higher social and economic attainment than those with little religious commitment. One study of young males in low-income communities sought to identify resiliency factors associated with youth able to attain their goals in spite of deprived backgrounds. This analysis concluded that a deep religious commitment had the strongest correlation with lower rates of school-dropout, delinquency, out-of-wedlock births, and drug abuse. Clearly, black churches can be a major resource for family support practitioners and programs in inner-city communities.

(Compiled from "Dispelling Myths and Building on Strengths: Supporting African American Families" by Robert Hill, an article in the Spring 1993 issue of the Family Resource Coalition's *Report*)