The African-American Strengthening Families Program

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The Alabama SFP program was implemented in Selma, Alabama by the Cahaba Mental Health Center. This CSAP-funded study supported the development and evaluation of a more Afro-centric version of SFP that would be appropriate for rural, Southern African-American families. The new version, called Strengthening Black Families Program, followed the original program session by session. The topics were not changed, nor the order. New cartoons were added of African-American parents and children by an African-American cartoonist. Culturally pride was increased by adding to the illustrations information about well educated and popular African Americans. Examples and stories were changed by the local African American trainers to match local realities

The mental health center was recruiting from a group of African American mothers in treatment for alcohol and drug programs. After the first year all of these women has participated. In the second year, the program director, hired a local recruiter. She lived in a housing project along with her mother and sisters. The family provided referrals for her on suspected alcohol and drug abusing parents. She would go to the families apartments and play cards with them. The main message was if you want more peace at home and your child to do better in school, you should come to this program that is designed specifically for African-American families. In addition, families were recruited from the school special education teachers and counselors. They focused on children with emotional and behavioral problems whose parents they thought might have a drinking problems or use drugs. Pastors and church leaders were also a source of referral of families with substance abuse problems. The program was run at the mental health center for five years on the CSAP High Risk Youth grant.

Results. The new version was very popular. Of the families participating 82% completed at least 12 of the 14 sessions. The program was effective in reducing family conflict, increased family organization in participating families (Kumpfer, 1990, 1991). One unexpected benefit of the family program was that even without being in substance abuse treatment, the alcohol and drug abusing mothers significantly reduced their substance use. We also learned that with rural African-American mothers, with limited language skills (about the 3rd grade level), that the manuals and Parent Handbooks had to be rewritten to have more graphics and just check off's for homework. Also, those mothers who didn't say much in the sessions, possibly because of embarrassment with their language skills, learned just as much as the other mothers. Their children also improved as well.

By the end of the program, the mothers reported their children had significantly reduced their depression, conduct disorders, delinquency, aggression, psycho-somatic complaints, and obsessive-compulsive behavior. SFP was equally effective in improving the parenting style and behaviors of the mothers. These results were consistent with a pattern of positive findings from the original NIDA study suggesting that the Strengthening Families Program is robust and can be disseminated and replicated with fidelity without the program developer's direct supervision.

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The Safehaven Program: SFP for Urban African-American Families
Malcolm was a cocaine addict in treatment in inner-city Detroit. He had attended the Strengthening Families Program for 12 weeks before this wife was convinced by her sister that he really was serious about being a good father and let his three children come to the program. I was in tears that night when the van brought the children to the church and three happy children ran into his open arms. They then completed the next group of the family program and he was reunited with his family on completion of treatment.

The African American parent version of the SFP developed for the state of Alabama was modified for use in the 12 session Safe Haven Program (Kumpfer, Bridges, & Williams 1993). While some African-American mothers in drug treatment did participate, most of the volunteering parents were fathers in drug treatment at an inner-city, Cass Corridor, 500-bed Salvation Army residential drug treatment center--Harborlight. An African-American female psychologist headed the program. She was a living example of how effective a strong family could be. Her mother had raised 12 children. Being the youngest, she was the least famous of siblings, who were cancer researchers, heart surgeons, judges, and psychiatrists. Her parents had raised their children, by and large, according to the principles which the SFP teaches parents. They held family meetings and had chores to do. The focus was on family unity and supporting each other.

In Detroit, the SFP was used more as a way of reuniting families and trying to reduce the generational cycle of drug abuse and poverty. In addition, these fathers were interested in learning to be better parents as part of a fatherhood initiative that was spreading in the African-American community in Detroit. The primary recruiter was a male recovered addict and drug counselor, who was very charismatic and convincing. The program was implemented in local churches at night. The agency used their vans to pick up the parents and children and bring them to the church centers. Several church women were hired to make and serve the meals for the dinners. Churches contributed bags of food and clothing for the families when the children complained of not having enough to eat during the week.

Results. Although recruitment rates were high, only about 45% completed 10 of the 12 SFP sessions and graduated in the first year. However, the average completion was 82-86% after 3 cohorts finished the program (Aktan, 1995). The positive results were basically the same as the prior Alabama program (Aktan, Kumpfer, & Turner, 1996) including significant improvements in family relations, children's behaviors, and parent stress and depression.

References
Aktan, G. (1995). Organizational framework for a substance use prevention program. International Journal of Addictions 30: 185-201.

Aktan, G., Kumpfer, K. L., Turner, C. (1996). The Safe Haven program: Effectiveness of a family skills training program for substance abuse prevention with inner city African American families. International Journal of the Addictions. 31, 158-175.

Kumpfer, K.L. (1991). Safe haven African American parenting project: First year evaluation report. Salt Lake City: University of Utah, Health Behavior Laboratory, Department of Health Education.

Kumpfer, K.L., Bridges, S., Williams, K. (1993). The Safehaven program: Strengthening African-American families. Submitted to the Detroit City Health Department by the Department of Health Education, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

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