Coordinate our efforts to maximize our impact on family stability

Grassroots movements have a place in helping to move communities forward to greater and better practices and policies in dealing with the many gaps within family services, support, and resources to the enrichment of all. As a member of the African American Family Preservation and Resource Committee, I have been fortunate to serve families, children, and individuals in collaboration with the other members of this team through various people, groups, organizations, and systems that work toward making families, children, and individuals stronger which strengthens the tapestry of the community at large.

Known locally as AAFPRC, we have worked in the community over the past 10 years to provide supports and resources to families with children of African Descent navigate the child welfare system. This has included working with the Department of Human Services in addressing disparate and disproportionate outcomes for families of African Descent in Linn County.

The mission of the committee is to identify both traditional and non-traditional resources that might be utilized to maintain or regain the integrity of families who are experiencing, or facing the possibility of out-of-home placement of one or more of its children.

To achieve this goal the AAFPRC provides family supports and programs to empower families to navigate systems, address issues of concern for the family and its children, and to assist in forming informal supports within the community which will help to provide family development and stability.

Through these efforts we hope to see positive outcomes for families and to identify and explore less intrusive options; where the family unit can be preserved or reunification can be expedited.

Additionally, the AAFPRC provides community outreach services that are intended to enrich the lives of children of African descent to include; their immediate and extended families.

Over time we have seen statistics rise and fall, the needs of families change, the system priorities change and the community respond with concern and with a desire to see real change happen for families. But as we look ahead we still see that there still is more to accomplish, and one of the greatest needs in our community is a way to get a real view of all the moving parts and how to leverage the work being done to maximize the impact on stability for families and children.

As we move into 2016, the AAFPRC will focus its mission to 'Create Contributing Citizens in Our Community”. To see this mission actualized we will continue to use promising practices within our programs in addition to partnering with others and working with other grass roots efforts in developing a strong sense of community where our children can receive nurturance and a sense of safety.

Our programs include; 'The African American Youth Think Tank” serving middle and high school youth; Unsnappin': Managing Multi-Generational Anger in Adult African American Males©, serving fathers of children of African Descent and youth males; Community Outreach providing informational sessions on topics from Mental Health to Parenting.

In order to progress it is our hope to invigorate what we do by connecting more community members to become a part of sharing their time and resources to help provide stable informal supports for families so that they can increase their feeling of belonging and having something to contribute by working beside others in the community to which they can relate.

Our hope would be to give opportunity to those who have potential that hasn't been optimized to become aware that they are needed at the tables to develop solutions that impact their families and children also. The availability of culturally specific opportunities within our growing community is necessary, not as to exclude some but to encourage some to feel included. Without acknowledging this issues is to dismiss groups of people who already don't feel included because often they feel they don't exist until something negative happens in certain areas in the community.

Lately I've come to realize that people aren't always ready for a program but they are usually always ready to sit down and speak to someone who really cares about what they have to say. And beware, just because people are experiencing crisis, trauma, or even stuck in poor behavior it seems they are very keen at perceiving who genuinely cares about what they have to say. Recently we had a conversation with a group of middle and high school youth, and the insight and depth of perception they had relating to critical issues in our community was amazing.

As 2015 comes to a close and the new year draws near hearts and minds individually and collectively begin to review what's past and what are we looking forward to in the next period of time. So as we progress into 2016 the AAFPRC will still be in the trenches and we'll have our programs but we will be providing opportunities to hear from you and discover what are the real issues and what supports do families and children really need to move to the next level of growth and stability. We hope you'll join us in listening!

AAFPRC members ~ Allen Bell, Denise Bridges, Vickie Clark, Betty Daniels, Dedric Doolin, Shelby Humbles Jr., Linda Topinka, Karl Werner (Virgil Gooding-deceased)

' Vickie Clark is administrative coordinator for the African American Family Preservation and Resource Committee. For more information, contact Vickie Clark at clark550214@msn.com; (319) 651-4795, or Shelby Humbles Jr. at shumblesjr@mediacombb.net; (319) 310-8293