Latrice Rollins (editor) - Engaging and Working with African American Fathers

Engaging and Working with African American Fathers: Strategies and Lessons Learned challenges traditional and historic practices and policies that have systematically excluded fathers and contributed to social and health disparities among this population.

With chapters written primarily by African American women drawing on years of research, interviews, and practical experience with this demographic each section explores current evidence on engagement approaches, descriptions of agencies/programs addressing specific issues fathers face, and case studies documenting typical clients and approaches to addressing their diverse needs. Offering an expansive overview of issues affecting African American fathers, the book explores such important topics as public, child and mental health, education, parenting, employment, and public initiatives among others.

Engaging and Working with African American Fathers is a key resource for social work, public health, education students, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and members of communities who are challenged by meeting the diverse needs of African American fathers.

Latrice S. Rollins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine. She served as an enforcement/legal agent for the State of Georgia Department of Child Support Services for four years. Her specific focus on women in fatherhood and adding womens voices to the fatherhood field developed as a researcher and board member for the nonprofit organization Women in Fatherhood, Inc.

Have we come to the conclusion that African American men are unwilling or unable to participate in the important work of childrearing? Women certainly have a stake in the issue, and in Engaging and Working with African American Fathers: Strategies and Lessons Learned women take the lead to dispel this myth and clarify the social and policy reality of the vital work of engaging fathers. It is an essential contribution to fatherhood scholarship and analysis.

Jacquelyn Boggess, Lecturer at University of Wisconsin School of Social Work and Executive Director at the Center for Family Policy & Practice

Rollins and her contributors have done a tremendous job in pulling together practices that will help to unify the current fragmented approaches to working with African American fathers. I would argue that this book must be regarded as a greatly important contribution to the fatherhood literature. It is invaluable for the manner in which authors combine the lessons learned on how to engage and work with both custodial and non-custodial fathers in the spheres of health, economics, and child development.

Obie Clayton, Director of the Quality Enhancement Plan, ASA Edmond Ware Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice

This book is an impressive work by a team of extraordinary women! A must-read for fatherhood and family practitioners. The book illuminates the importance of understanding the challenges faced by African American fathers, yet, it also provides strategies for empowering them toward being the best fathers. This work is a genuine gift to the field of responsible fatherhood.

Jeffery Johnson, President of the National Partnership for Community Leadership

Engaging and Working
with African American
Fathers

Strategies and Lessons Learned

Edited by Latrice S. Rollins

First published 2020

by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2021 Taylor & Francis

The right of Latrice S. Rollins to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rollins, Latrice S, editor.

Title: Engaging and working with African American fathers : strategies and lessons / edited by Latrice S Rollins.

Description: 1 Edition. | New York City : Routledge Books, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020028940 (print) | LCCN 2020028941 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367231200 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367231255 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429278389 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: African American fathers.

Classification: LCC HQ756 .E535 2020 (print) | LCC HQ756 (ebook) | DDC 306.874/208996073dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028940

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028941

ISBN: 978-0-367-23120-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-23125-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-27838-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by MPS Limited, Dehradun

LATRICE ROLLINS

DEBRA COPELAND AND PETRICE SAMS-ABIODUN

ANGELIA D. ONEAL

LATRICE ROLLINS AND GINA GREEN-HARRIS

DIANE AISHA SEARS

TASHA ALSTON

RUBY NORRIS FREEMAN AND LATRICE ROLLINS

LATRICE ROLLINS AND KISHA THOMAS

LATRICE ROLLINS AND CARMEN RAY

LATRICE ROLLINS AND TONYA BOOSE

LATRICE ROLLINS

In a post-civil rights, post-great recession, and currently, a depression-level economic status, crises abound. Within this backdrop, a deadly and unforgiving COVID-19 disease has penetrated and dominated the lives of people throughout the world community. Across America, however, a critical, timely, and ingenious conversation is occurring among thought leaders. Academicians; researchers; practitioners in geopolitical-economic domains, socio-religious, health, and social welfare systems professionals are re-examining the essence and necessity of fatherhood. Compelling messages from accomplished scholars, researchers, and practitioners are eloquently integrated into a carefully designed, well thought out framework, with commentary and critique about the necessity of healthy fatherhood. Numerous professionals across disciplines have written that fatherhood in America is at the crossroads, and this crisis has been lurking among families and communities for decades. The focus of this scholarly narrative judiciously addresses crises, challenges, and complexities. Collectively, these phenomena create the intersections that produce human and material systems that undergird the human condition. Still, roadmaps or blueprints with strategic plans and clearly defined actions are critical for the promulgation of better science and service about fatherhood. Individual, familial, organizational, and societal system levels are indispensable components needed for progress.