African American children are disproportionately represented in the child welfare and foster care system. While there is no statistically significant difference between race and rates of maltreatment, African Americans are more likely to be reported, investigated, have their children removed from their care, and remain in foster care settings longer. As the system continues to work to meet the needs of African American families, the actual experiences of African American parents have moved to the peripheral. There is little data available that speaks specifically to the extent to which African American families experience child welfare services as culturally sensitive and/or beneficial. The primary goal of this study was to describe the experiences that a sample of African American biological parents have when working with child welfare service providers (CWSP). The secondary research goal was to examine how the sample of African American biological parents made sense of their child welfare experiences. A third research goal was to determine how child welfare policies inform and affect the relationship between African American biological parents and CWSP. The forth research goal was to explore the extent to which African American biological parents felt CWSP considered their unique cultural needs. Finally, this study identified the essential components that must be present in order for parents to feel that their needs have been adequately by CWSP and the system. A critical ethnography methodology was employed in this study. A total of 18 in-depth individual interviews were completed. Each individual interview also included an ecomap activity that identified the network of CWSP that participants interacted with during the period of time they were involved in the system. Participants had both positive and negative experiences when working with child CWSP. With regard to how parents made sense of their experience, they experienced a combination of negative feelings about self, negative feelings about the system and CWSP, and positive feelings about CWSP. They experienced both negative and beneficial policy infractions that informed and influenced the relationship between participants and CWSP. Participants also identified both the inability and ability of CWSP to address their unique cultural experiences as an African American family. Finally, participants indicated that there were both CWSP practices and system characteristics that needed to be present in order for them to feel that their needs had been adequately met.Findings indicate that African American biological parents experience a wide variety of negative and positive experiences with CWSP. Negative experiences appear to have a longer lasting impression and stronger influence on parents' perception of their overall child welfare experiences. Participants appeared to be most satisfied when they felt CWSP possessed an understanding of the context of their lives, which included an understanding of the effects of unique cultural experiences. The findings of the study point to the need for additional cultural competency training for CWSP. Additional training is particularly important given the importance participants placed on CWSP acknowledging systemic inequality and structural and process differences related to culture. In addition, education regarding the policies that guide and regulate the work done by CWSP is needed in order to educate, empower, and better serve African American families.
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