Working With African-American Children and Families

Approximately one-third of children in foster care are African-American. This section provides resources to help child welfare workers more fully engage with African-American families and make culturally competent case decisions, including State and local examples.

African-American Adoptions
McRoy (2004)
In Child Welfare Revisited: An Africentric Perspective
View Abstract
Examines important issues in African-American adoption practice and offers suggestions, using an Afrocentric perspective, for improving service delivery outcomes. This article includes strategies for the recruitment and retention of African-American adoptive families.

Black Adoption Myths and Realities
Duncan
Adoptalk, Summer (2005)
Challenges misperceptions about African-Americans and African-American families that affect views on adoption by African-American families.

Engaging African American Communities and Organizations to Support Foster Care and Adoption for Children in the Child Welfare System (PDF - 4854 KB)
National Resource Center for Adoption
The Roundtable, 25(1), 2011
Describes how child welfare professionals can engage African-American communities effectively and reach out to African-Americans to serve as resource families for children in foster care.

Finding African-American Families for Foster Children: Tips for Workers & Agencies
Riggs
Adoptalk, Summer (2005)
Provides examples of effective ways to recruit African-American adoptive families.

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State and local examples

Creating Adoption Neighborhoods: Final Report & Replication Manual
DePelchin Children's Center (2005)
View Abstract
Describes the activities and outcomes of a 3-year federally funded program designed to increase the placement of African-American children in Harris County, TX.

MECCA (Men Embracing Children Collectively through Adoption) Project
Another Choice for Black Children, Inc. (2004)
View Abstract and Document
Describes Project MECCA, which targets and recruits single and married African-American men to become adoptive parents.

National Network of Adoption Advocacy Programs: One Church, One Child; Site Visit Report (PDF - 94 KB)
Children's Bureau (2009)
Discusses the findings of an evaluation of the federally funded Virginia One Church, One Child (OCOC) adoption advocacy program designed to recruit families to adopt African-American children. The report addresses successful strategies for OCOC programs, including working with child welfare agencies, building relationships with pastors and clergy leaders, having a church coordinator, and more.

Recruitment and Retention of African-American Resource Families: Ohio's Promising Practices
Adopt Ohio Kids (2006)
View Abstract
Identifies promising practices among large, public children's services agencies in Ohio for recruiting and retaining African-American resource parents.

Site Visit: Child-Specific Recruitment for African-American Children
Children's Bureau Express, 11(4), 2010
Describes a federally funded Florida program, All Things Are Possible: No Limits Adoption Recruitment for African-American Children, which involved child-specific recruitment for 10 African-American youth, aged 9 and older. The success of this program led the State to take the program statewide with a project called The 100 Longest Waiting Teens Project: A Family for Every Teen.