Doctoral Candidates: Vivian Hopkins Jackson

Working Title: The Relationship between Culture, Program Characteristics, and Participation of African Americans in Family Preservation Services

Preliminary Dissertation Summary

My dissertation explores the influence of culture on program design and client participation. Services research often focuses on problems, interventions, and outcomes. This mechanical perspective ignores the interaction between the values, beliefs, and perspectives of the client with the ideology, philosophy, and theory of change that serves as the foundation for the intervention strategy offered. Poor attendance, noncompliance, lack of engagement, and poor treatment alliance are descriptions of problems in participation. If we have a better understanding of the participation phenomena, we may be able to develop more effective strategies for intervention.

These concerns have particular relevance for services to African Americans, who are typically over-represented in negative social phenomena, but for whom typical interventions are of limited success. Clearly there are many systemic factors, but some of the problems with effectiveness of certain service interventions may be explained by the absence of cultural fit.

One major issue for African American families is the overrepresentation of African American children in foster care. One explanation is the slow adoption rate for these children. Another, more serious issue, is the limited success of reunification services and family preservation services. My study compares participation of clients in two family preservation programs serving the same African American population in an urban center. One program is specifically designed to incorporate the ideology, values and beliefs than emanate from an Africentric philosophy. The other program makes no such claim. The outcomes of my study will provide information as to whether this particular type of culture-specific service will promote improved participation and thereby increase the possibility of positive outcomes.

Bio

Vivian Hopkins Jackson is a doctoral candidate in Social Welfare at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a Mandel Leadership Fellow. She earned her Master's in Social Work at Howard University School of Social Work and her Bachelor's in Sociology at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

Jackson had extensive social work experience prior to embarking on her doctoral studies. She served as Director of Policy and Practice for the National Association of Social Workers for several years. Her direct practice experience was conducted in health and mental health settings, including a medical teaching hospital, a psychiatric hospital, a comprehensive community health center, and private practice.

She established her own consulting practice in 1996 that has a focus on system reform and cultural competence in mental health and child-serving systems. Current and past clients include IBM, Washington Business Group on Health, Georgetown University National Center on Cultural Competence, and the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice. Since the publication of her book, Cultural Competence in Managed Behavioral Health Care (Manisses Communications Group, 1999), most of her research and professional work has focused on organizational cultural competence.

Jackson, age 54, is married and the mother of two boys, ages 12 and 15.