Race Equality Foundation - Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities

Background to the programme

Our experiences as children can be the longest and strongest influence in our lives. Our experience of being parented, whether by our parents or others, is a crucial part of whether we look back on childhood an as enjoyable and happy time. It is also a crucial part in preparing us for the challenges of life, whether it is to get a job or be respectful and caring in our relationship with others. Yet parents face many challenges of every day living: managing money; supporting our children's education; coping with ill-health or poor housing; dealing with racism; bringing up our children in safe surroundings; and ensuring that both girls and boys get a fair chance to achieve their ambitions.

The Race Equality Foundation has, for a number of years, been at the leading edge of work on improving the support that black and minority ethnic families receive. Part of this has involved carrying out research and saw us carry out a study of the use of family centres by black and minority ethnic families. Our findings, included evidence that while parent education programmes were being implemented by almost all the family centres, there was little evidence of black and minority parents participating in these programmes. This appeared to confirm, other small-scale studies, which painted a similar picture.

Yet we had seen research from America that not only were African American and other 'minority' parents participating in parent 'training' programmes, but that they and their children appeared to be benefiting from these programmes. Parents appeared to be more confident, particularly in advocating for their children; there appeared to improvements in relationships with other adults, including their partners; they were improvements in relationships with their children, better communication being one of the improvements identified. Finally, there was some evidence that the children did better, particularly at school. We suggested perhaps it was the content of the programmes being deployed in the UK, as well as how successfully black and minority ethnic parents were attracted and engaged by these programmes that was leading to a lack of take-up of these programmes.

Our review of a large number of the programmes that were operating in Britain suggested that there was only limited representation of black and minority ethnic people in the materials as well as limited information on how to engage these families successfully. In submitting an application to the Home Office family support grant we were successful in securing support for the development of parent education materials that would effectively engage black and minority ethnic parents.

In developing these materials we started looking at American programmes and come across two that appeared to be directed specifically at the African American and other minority communities. The name that appeared to be associated with both these programmes was Dr Marilyn Steele. We then asked Shelli Brothman, an American clinical psychologist involved in the evaluation of various parent initiatives, about programmes that operated in America that work with minority communities. She suggested we needed to speak to Marilyn Steele. We made contact with Marilyn and got a positive response, with the suggestion that if we could schedule our American trip for November (1999) we would be able to meet with her as well as her collaborators Ron Johnson and Jerry Tello. In addition we would be able to comply with our other request, which was to meet parents who were going through the programme, as well as, people who were implementing the programme. Marilyn and her colleagues were very accommodating and managed to fit us in as well as arrange for us to visit a number of sites in Los Angeles and Cincinnati where the programme was being delivered.

Our preparation for the visit involved us thinking clearly about some of the questions we wanted addressed about how the programme dealt with: issues such as smacking; what mechanisms were in place for evaluating the programme; whether and how fathers and men were engaged in the programme; how the programme dealt with people who were forced to attend the programme; what were the characteristics, skills and qualifications of a good facilitator. We wanted to know from parents what their general impression was about the programme, what sort information they got from the programme and whether the programmes brought about a change in their behaviour.

Parents reported feeling that they were doing it all wrong before they came on the programme, yet often the programme made them think that "yes I am on the right track". Parents did gain new information particularly on what they might expect their children to be able to do, at different points of their lives. They also learnt strategies to control their own temper as well as being reminded of the need to spend 'special time' with their children. One grandfather who now was the main carer for his daughters' children reported that he wished that he had gone on this programme when he was bringing her up, perhaps this would have helped him deal with some of the problems that she now faces. One mother talked about how she used time out at times of conflict with her two sons, whereas in the past she would have lost her temper, and most likely have used physical punishment. A young mother reported that she was attending to programme because family services had removed her children and where suggesting they may be permanently removed. She suggested that family services had seen such improvements in her behaviour and her relationship with her children that they were now planning to return her children. One group of parents we visited pointed out that in their group, all except one of the parents had been white, but it had proved to be valuable in reminding them that they all had a culture and that there were important things in their culture that they wanted to pass on to their children. She also reported how one father who had said very little throughout the programme, but had come to all the sessions, said during the Reflection and Sharing part of Session Twelve, that as far as he was concerned they had now all become part of his support network and if ever they needed his support, he would be more than willing to help.

In meeting with Jerry Tello, he very effectively demonstrated the importance of the facilitators training. He argued that the facilitator training needed to bring about change in the facilitators, if we were to have any hope in bringing about change in parents. Ron Johnson emphasised the importance of the development of self-esteem in children, particularly if they are to do well in school. He demonstrated the crucial role parents play in this. As importantly parents needed to supported in developing the skills and information to advocate for their children, particularly when it came to dealing with issues that were beyond their own immediate control such as poor quality schools or gang violence. All the time emphasising that parenting is a community activity not just an individual one, and that the local environment (drugs, violence, schools, play areas, employment opportunities, community resources) all play a part in allowing good parenting to take place.

The programme clearly had many pluses, but there remained problems, including the focus on violence in the programme. Our view was there was not the same focus on violence in the UK as in America. In addition most of the research referred to American studies and we needed to check whether the information was relevant to the UK. Furthermore we were uncertain as to how well certain concepts such as the 'rites of passage' would translate to the UK context. We therefore agreed a process of review and revision with Marilyn which included, parents and professionals in Britain reviewing and revising the programme, a pilot facilitator training taking place with feedback in to the review and revision process, and finally the programme being delivered to black and minority ethnic parents to see how effectively it worked. This review process suggested some areas of change, highlighted the demanding nature of the programme, but also pointed to the transferability of many of the concepts such as rites of passage as well as the relevance of issues such as gang violence. At this point we were able to apply for a new grant that allowed us to carry out the revisions as well as start a programme of delivery in Britain.

Since this process took place in 1999-2000, SFSC has gone from strength to strength. In the past six year, Marilyn with the Race Equality Foundation has trained around 1500 facilitators. Hundreds of programmes have been delivered to thousands of parents. Further developments such as the translation of the material into a range of community languages, annual conferences, peer support groups and a range of training programmes are available to support facilitators develop their skills. New projects are devised, funding secured and then implemented, such as adapting the materials to use with parents with learning disabilities, or devising training to support facilitators to better work with fathers.

Strengthening Families has been a massive success and continues to expand - long may it continue!