ACB-FGC: A Culturally Responsive Program to Support Black Families Involved with the Ontario Child Welfare System

The disparate and disproportionate involvement of African American families in the child welfare system has been well documented, but research examining the experiences of African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) Canadian families in child welfare is emerging in Canada. In the province of Ontario, recent studies find that Black families are represented in the child welfare system at disproportionate and disparate rates. Experiences of Black youth, caregivers, and workers also highlight differential and punitive treatment within the system. These findings have given rise to the development of the African, Caribbean, Black Family Group Conferencing Project (ACB-FGC), a restorative, culturally responsive innovation to support Black families at risk of, or already engaged in, the child welfare system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In this presentation, Dr. Lance T. McCready, co-director of ACB-FGC, describes the community-based research that led to the development of ACB-FGC and implications of ACB-FGC for provincial policies and practices to address anti-Black racism in the child welfare system and among partner institutions.

Dr. McCready is the co-director of ACB-FGC, and an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He holds a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. and Ph.D. in education, all from UC Berkeley. Dr. McCready is the recipient of the 2017 Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize from the University of Toronto, and the 2018 Distinguished Research Scholar Award from the Ontario Education Research Symposium.