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African-American women who are addicted to illicit substances are disproportionately over-represented in jails, prisons, and treatment programs. In addition, this group suffers greater deleterious physical and mental health effects of alcohol and drug abuse (McNeece & DiNitto, 1998). When African-American female substance abusers enter treatment or are the focus of intervention research, clinicians and researchers have a distinct opportunity to serve these women in a culturally competent manner and assist in the healing and recovery process. Black feminist theory and Black family theoretical perspectives are explicated as the theoretical underpinnings of the Afrocentric treatment paradigm, which is beneficial in developing CUlturally sensitive interventions for this group of women. Culturally appropriate treatment tools and interventions are suggested as a means of empowering substance dependent African-American women.

Child welfare struggles to manage child abuse and neglect and to seek permanency for children, while being culturally responsive to the communities it serves. Family group conferencing, piloted in New Zealand and now used in the United States and other countries, is a strengths-based model that brings together families and their support systems to develop and carry out a plan that protects, nurtures, and safeguards children and other family members. This article describes the model and a culturally competent method for assessing and adapting the model for the African American, Cherokee, and Latino/Hispanic communities in North Carolina.

In order to respond to concomitant factors that impact members of the extensive African Diasporic community, African-centered theory/Afrocentricity warrants elevation in the social work literature and scientific inquiry.

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