Implementing ASFA with Vulnerable African American Families: A Community Capacity Approach

Unintended policy impacts by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 have adversely affected African American families involved with the foster care system. The Community Capacity Model (Bowen, Martin, Mancini, & Nelson, 2000) was modified to reflect the implementation of adoption policy and employed to demonstrate how communities can capitalize on social capital and existing networks to improve how the Adoption and Safe Families Act operates in the lives of African American families.