Groupwork as the method of choice with black children in white foster homes

Abstract

Whilst professional child care thinking has rightly moved increasingly towards ‘same race’ placements as the placements of choice for black children in care, the needs of those young people who are already established in long term transracial foster homes and of their carers have frequently been ignored. The authorities which made these placements in the past have a continuing responsibility in the present to support them, with appropriately targeted intervention. Some of the key advantages of a groupwork response are explored, and the impact of one particular group on the self-image of its young black members is evaluated. The conclusion is reached that the existence of such a group allowed essential black identity work to be commenced at an earlier stage than is normal in one-to-one work. Some of the features of the group itself are critically examined in relation to its overall aims, and a further, complementary groupwork model is put forward. The conclusion is reached that all such efforts must take place within a context of far reaching agency policies which attempt to combat institutional racism and to offer developmental input to foster carers and social workers as well as to transracially placed young people themselves.

Publisher’s note: We are now putting all back issues of Groupwork on line. Articles in this issue have been scanned to pdf files as viable original typesetting files no longer exist. Though they may not look it, these files are searchable. This issue was published nearly 30 years ago. We have stated author professional details as received at time of publication (though where we have current email addresses we have added them). Abstracts are word-for-word transcriptions of the original abstracts without any attempt to update terminology.