The African American Family Institute believes that family dynamics can be redefined through the median of family education. Even if presupposed that this generation has missed the mark, we have the opportunity through intentional intervention to shape and pre-determined the families of today and tomorrow.

A focus on social geographies of family learning allows us to see how educational initiatives extend the state’s reach into family life, producing particular normative middle‐class versions of family and parenting and the effects on those targeted.

We begin by providing context through an appraisal of the (changing) relationship between policy and parenting in recent years, highlighting particular meanings of family inherent in policy discourse and their often gendered and classed prescriptions. We then outline the specificities of family learning within the context of the African American Family Institute, which will serve as a resource, and training center for family enhancement, and developing best practices for family life. We argue that restructuring in advanced capitalist economies and emergence of the adult‐worker model (Lewis & Giullari, 2005) has placed education firmly within the family in two distinct ways. Firstly, the role of families’ influence on children’s educational attainment has gained increased importance. Secondly, there has been concerted emphasis placed on parents’ employment, particularly mothers, with education a means of facilitating a transition to paid work. Family learning provides a unique vantage point to capture these roles and specialize understandings of the state’s intervention in family life through an explicit geographical reading of connections between these spaces. It also highlights the importance of better understanding of educational initiatives that simultaneously work on and with families, parents and children. Articulating family: Parenting and policy Family learning is an example of an educational initiative, primarily aimed at parents and linked to wider policy concerns, which can be explored through a mapping of its social geographies; family learning is played out across and productive of different sites, spaces and identities.

reference: https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3262

The Founder’s academic studies revealed the need for Academicians across the country, and the world to revisit the need to secure a better future for children an families within African American Communities, in low income areas. One of the most controversial publications released in the mid-sixties, better known as the Moynihan’s report. Written through a zealous effort by Patrick Moynihan to communicate his perception of the present condition of the black family, along with its bleak prediction of a dismal future. This publication sparked the response of many scholars, advocates, theologians, and political leaders who differed in perspective, arguing that the publication did not clearly point out the systematic, social, or economic disparities that caused a break down in the family construct.

The African American Institute seeks to engage partnerships with public and private Universities in order to create evidence based stimuli, to help inform, and set policy for a better quality of life for all people of color.

Volusia County has Five major College and Universities within its boundaries. Three of which, are within a five mile radius of the black community. It is encumbered upon us to lend the resources and technology that can help bridge the gap of education, financial equality, addressing social determinants of health, and creating a pathway of change for a community who, for many years have been underserved, and deprived of quality investment.