Mezzo and Macro Practice Settings

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=whum20

Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment

ISSN: 1091-1359 (Print) 1540-3556 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/whum20

Community practice and the Afrocentric paradigm

Colita Nichols Fairfax

To cite this article: Colita Nichols Fairfax (2017) Community practice and the Afrocentric paradigm, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 27:1-2, 73-80, DOI: 10.1080/10911359.2016.1263090

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2016.1263090

Published online: 21 Dec 2016.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 767

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Citing articles: 2 View citing articles

Community practice and the Afrocentric paradigm Colita Nichols Fairfax

The Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

ABSTRACT Community practice was developed by social reformers after Black people created communities after enslavement. Given America’s apartheid system of segregation, Black social leaders, also referred to as social reformers, were creating institutions and systems that not only attended to human needs but also affirmed culture, family, and traditions. As the Afrocentric perspective reinterpreted African philosophy, socioeconomic/political realities, and cul- ture in the latter 20th century, social workers should apply this point of view within a community practice context to attend to systemic and environmen- tal issues impacting the African American community. This article explores the intersection of community practice and the Afrocentric paradigm that social workers can apply in the 21st century.

KEYWORDS Afrocentric paradigm; community; community- defined practice; social work

Introduction

Community practice is indispensable to transforming the environmental landscape where impo- verished Black people reside, attend school, worship, and engage recreation, while simultaneously negotiating crime, environmental hazards, food deserts, decrepit economic outlets, and health and mental health challenges as well as tyrannically dominating systems of public welfare, child support enforcement, corrections, and law enforcement. Without appropriate economic engines, alienated schools, and environmental hazards within the vicissitudes of life, community practice is essential and culturally congruent in applied science when working in the African American community. Societal marginalization of these resources, predicated upon systemic values of African dehumanization and sensibilities, have rendered segments of the neighborhoods unpala- table for human living and thriving. In fact, the field of social work has weakly addressed issues of culture and race and the dehumanization of African philosophy and culture, as thought leaders in community social work posit grassroots work as perfunctory social action and legislative advocacy as sufficient to transformative change. A three-pronged model of community intervention of locality development, social action, and social planning/policy (Rothman, 1996) is widely promul- gated as a viable and appropriate response. Another example of conventional community practice is in “four major processes that focus on the democratic revitalization of communities and societies reflect the scope of contemporary practice are development, organizing, planning and progressive change efforts” (Weil, 1994, pp. xxx–xxxi; Weil, Reisch, & Ohmer, 2013, p. 11). This conceptual framework of the profession’s response assumes that all people have equal access to American social systems and quality-of-life standards: “The absence of culturally-specific para- digms challenges the community practitioners’ ability to develop the most appropriate community organizing strategies and interventions for the target milieu” (Laing, 2009, p. 21). This article explores community practice with an Afrocentric paradigm with contemporary implications for culturally congruent community practice. This knowledge is paramount to social workers engaging in human transformation and change:

CONTACT Colita Nichols Fairfax [email protected] The Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work, Norfolk State University, 700 Park Ave., Brown Memorial Hall B140, Norfolk, VA 23504, USA. © 2017 Taylor & Francis

JOURNAL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 2017, VOL. 27, NOS. 1–2, 73–80 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2016.1263090

What social workers have to realize is that the notion of human development is closely linked to people’s cultural background. Part of the education and training of social workers has to include an experience of deliberate cultural immersion in the various cultural settings where they might eventually hope to practice after graduation. This will help to improve their ability to provide social work services cross-culturally. (Thabede, 2008, p. 244)

Afrocentricity is a paradigm that is birthed in African-centered intellectual critique, which is also related to African philosophy. African-centered research is rooted within philosophies, cultures, and principles that analyze and apply theories to praxis, unique locally and globally. Given that academic knowledge production has been formulated within European cultural and philosophical foundation, out of which all academic disciplines are formulated, this knowledge production is predicated upon intellectual traditions emanating from the Greco-Roman period. African centeredness represents the intellectual and philoso- phical foundations of scientific and moral criteria for authenticating human reality (Nobles, 1986), from ancient Egypt, Mali, Songhay, Ghana, Nigeria, and Angola. Africentric has been used by psychologists to explain the theoretical, cognitive, and behavioral processes with African-centered therapies and treatment (Kambon, 1992). The term Afrocentricity has garnished more attention, and, to connect with the reader, this term will be used. “The Afrocentric paradigm is a social science paradigm premised on the philoso- phical concepts of traditional [precolonial] Africa” (Thabede, 2008, p. 235). Afrocentricity is a theory concerned with African epistemological relevance to achieve intellectual agency (Asante, 1999) and social change and for inquiries in historical, political, cultural, and developmental proportions: “African culture is at the center of discovery” (Asante, 1987; 1999). As America’s demographic population increases with African diasporic, African American, Asian ethnicities, Hispanic, Moslem and Arab cultures, social work should stand on the precipice of change by embracing paradigms and practice models that are culturally centered, culturally relevant, and culturally endorsed for community application: “African-centered social work challenges the all-embracing universal nature of the ethnocentric social science paradigms which have hitherto formed the basis of existing social work theory and practice” (Graham, 1999, p. 265).

The African worldview is used to center Afrocentricity. The African worldview is based in conceptual pillars applied to beliefs, perceptions, intuitions, and the nature of reality (Parham, 2002, xv) and has informed the theory and application of Afrocentricity to the study of African diasporic phenomena. The principles and values that underpin this worldview are the intercon- nectedness of all things, the spiritual nature of human beings, the collective/individual identity and the collective/inclusive nature of family structure, the oneness of mind, body, and spirit, and the value of interpersonal relationships (Graham, 1999, p. 258), for which we seek behavioral outputs. As the long struggle for civil and human rights unfolded in the 20th century, Black Power movement scholars articulated alternative ways of knowing and questioning phenomena about the global African experience. Not just a field of Black history, Afrocentricity grew as a unique paradigm applicable in the various disciplines, with the common goal of knowledge production and improving quality of life. Since theory drives social work practice, social workers should master theories and philosophical frameworks that reflect the humanity and reality of the popula- tion served. Applying the Afrocentric paradigm is an important step in community practice, “requiring community practitioners to acknowledge the role that identities and group member- ships play in shaping people’s lives and experiences” (Reisch, Ife, & Weil, 2013, p. 99). Afrocentricity may be applied to all practice levels because of the obscene manner in which American social institutions assault African Americans:

In human services, hegemony is best expressed through two models: (1) the theories and models for explaining and solving social problems arise from a Eurocentric conception of human behavior and social problems, and (2) the cultural values of people of color, generally and African Americans, specifically, have not been used sufficiently as a theoretical base to establish new human service practice paradigms and methods. (Schiele, 2000, pp. 5–6)

The legacy of empirically applied theories in social work has marginalized the relevance of other cultural theories, though there are aspects of epistemology. Pellabon explains:

74 C. N. FAIRFAX

Because the social work profession is grounded in empirically-based theories and accepted perspectives, other ways of knowing augment knowledge developed through the scientific method. In place of empiricism, Afrocentricity’s epistemology consists of truth based on authority, cultural tradition, and mysticism. (Pellabon, 2007, p. 177)

This article explores the use of African principles in Afrocentric community practice, where African American and other African diasporic populations reside. “The need for African-centered cultural programs in the African American community continues to be a necessity” (Fairfax, 2011, p. 122).

Defining community

The physical and conceptual definitions of community is a tantamount principle of what an African American is. Social workers must understand that when interfacing with African American commu- nity, “community is [a] necessary condition for the realization of human social goals” (Agulanna, 2010, p. 283). Not just an environmental or neighborhood geographical location, it is an intimate part of who a person is, how that person perceives him- or herself, and the concomitant aspects of life—educational experiences, economic prosperity or degradation, spirituality, safety, relationships, etc. Community has been defined as a network of connections, “informally inscribed in such institutions as churches, social clubs, member organizations, and associations, …with neighborhoods as places where some set of social (as in kin, friend, and acquaintance networks), functional (as in the production, consumption, and transfer of goods and services), cultural (as in religion, tradition, or ethnic identity), or circum- stantial (as in economic status or lifestyle) connections exist” (Chaskin, 2013, p. 107). When applying African principles, a community represents simultaneously a place (geography and ideological), a history (set of shared experiences and conditions), and a people (sense of being and belonging) of a connected people with a shared common worldview, experiences, values, and beliefs (Goodard, Haggins, Nobles, Rhett-Mariscal, & Williams-Flournoy, 2014, p. 16; Nobles, 1986). Social workers must consider this concept of community within practice, as it presents much more meaning about how people function, flourish, and build future generations. More importantly, when applying these principles, social workers should attend to transforming the landscape and sensibilities of the popula- tion who (1) stayed for generations, because of ancestral settlement after enslavement, (2) migrated there due to economic and family choices, and (3) aligned themselves with the neighborhood due to political choices. Terms such as the home place, family home, or “my block” speak more to spaces where people first understood their humanity and their cultural reality and are visceral indicators of the landscape of belonging and being. “Africans argue that it is in community that the life of the individual gets its meaning and significance” (Agulanna, 2010, p. 297). Survey data show that this conceptualization of community influences community involvement with personal benefits that are “comprised of 1) support of historically Black institutions, 2) support of non-historically Black institutions serving the community, 3) mentorship to other adults of African-descent, 4) mentorship of youth of African descent, 5) provision of financial support, 6) provision of emotional support, 7) engagement in self-care and 8) provision of safety to the Black community” (Grayman-Simpson, 2012, p. 28). This level of involvement speaks to the relevance and viability of cultural development to actualize progress and resources.

Often community development refers to political activism, resource and capacity development, and economic development to rebuild communities. Yet community is the vessel not only of economic development, but also of social development, which is complimented, reinforced, and sustained by African values (Agulanna, 2010), and social workers should attend to transforming the landscape where social and cultural development are variables in practice. Attending to the land- scape means that social workers should acknowledge not only the dearth of economic development in certain communities, but also the absence of cultural development and the presence of practiced African behaviors. Every cultural group has parameters by which normal, abnormal, and deviant behavior is defined, predicated upon illness, treatment/healing, and health (Waldron, 2010). In social

JOURNAL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 75

work assessments, only behaviors that are viewed as abnormal and deviant are expressed and explored, yet theoretical data of normal and African-informed behaviors are not infused in social work curriculums, published documents, forums, and conferences. Given that community is neces- sary in the human by-product of personality, behaviors, social structures, and productivity, under- standing normal African American behaviors, informed by worldview, is important.

“The study of clients’ cultural orientations provides workers with knowledge so that they can make accommodations accordingly” (Li, n.d.). Community organizing, development, and mobiliza- tion through an Afrocentric paradigm requires a benchmark of culturally oriented behaviors that defines a human person. Cultural customs of a belief in God reflected in high moral character traits, the sanctity of family and children and other social relationships (kinship bonds), a sense of excellence in education, civics, business, and domestic affairs (rearing of children, organization of the home), importance of history, and race pride (Goodard et al., 2014; Nobles, 1986) are exempli- fied in family and organized communities. Cultural values of the respect of elders, self-mastery of cognitive processes and skilled behavior, patience, collective responsibility, restraint and resilience, devotion, cognitive flexibility (akin to code switching), persistence, reciprocity, productivity, defi- ance, and integrity of behavior (Goodard et al., 2014; Nobles, 1986) are also components of cultural orientation and normalcy. Last, spirituality/(religion), humanism, communalism, orality, verbal expressiveness and emotional vitality, personal uniqueness, and musicality/rhythm are aspects of cultural orientation and behaviors that are normal aspects of African American community life (Goodard et al., 2014; Nobles, 1986). The presence of these behavioral traits is tantamount to recognizing African cultural orientation in communities, where interventions and treatment pro- grams are enabled for transformative change. In fact, the absence of this orientation should be equally addressed, as political activism, economic development, and resource capacity development. Without appropriate cultural orientation, the other conventional aspects of community development are truncated and meaningless. Furthermore, community development policies in states have truncated community leadership involvement with shaping meaningful and philosophically influ- enced practices.

Perfidious community development policy

Although social reformers always created social institutions that addressed educational, religious, and cultural uplift practices, the predominance of community implementation has been funneled through programs funded by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (EOA). Yet community policy has engaged in duplicity with leaders, funding of certain programs and interventions, and maximum feasible participation. The perfidy of policy engagement is bewildering, as none of the programs designed and implemented address identity and behavioral depths of African human beingness (Fairfax, 2011). Social programs originally articulated in the EOA included VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America), Job Corps, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, Head Start, adult basic education, family planning, community health centers, Congregate Meal Preparation, economic development, fostering grandparents, legal services, neighborhood centers, summer youth programs, and senior centers (Fairfax, 2015). Additionally, the EOA established more than 1,000 community action agencies (CAAs) and community action programs. Some CAAs were nonprofit groups, some became city agencies, and some became community-controlled groups. The EOA required that the poor have “maximum feasible participation” in poverty program planning. CAAs sought participa- tion by the poor by opening storefront and neighborhood centers, yet a new generation of federally recruited community activists joined the ranks of federal poverty program administration, and states had the freedom to operate these programs (Bailey & Duquette, 2014). It was originally thought that Black people “have been called upon to speak in their own behalf, to assess their needs, and to join in the design and implementation of programs to meet those needs” (Rubin, 1969, p. 29).

But the Green Amendment of 1967 stipulated that local elected officials had the authority to designate official CAAs for their areas. The Quie Amendment that same year stipulated that one-third of CAA

76 C. N. FAIRFAX

boards be composed of elected officials, and another third be composed of private sector representatives, limiting representation of the African American community to one-third (http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/ media/objects/751/769950/Documents_Library/eoa1964.htm). Rubin explains that the manner in which the indigent would participate was never clarified in the policy (1969, p. 19): “welfare agencies and politicians made massive efforts to retain their doctrine, dogma, and power” (p. 29). Leadership developed from the Civil Rights movement, particularly its youth organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), were excluded. State leadership did not turn to the traditional machinery of organized participation (Boone, 1972, p. 449). More administrative and programmatic changes came under the Nixon-Ford administrations, as the Housing and Community Development Acct in 1974 created Community Development Block Grants, authorizing low-income housing (project areas), veteran home loans, rural housing, mobile home construction, and other public housing needs (Boone, 1972). Even with community proposal funding, African American community decision making and participa- tion were diminished. Succeeding federal administrations focused on housing rehabilitation, home insulation, and Community Block Grants with Housing and Urban Development, as states engaged in duplicity by disinvesting in Black neighborhoods and appointing business leaders to community boards. During the 1990s and into the 21st century, community organizing efforts were led by faith-based groups (Brueggemann, 2013, p. 41) under President George W. Bush. We have seen the same policy pattern as community development under President Barack Obama, where it is paired with housing, relying on social organizations to deliver third party services, with little to no feasible maximum participation from the community. The perfidy of community policy prevails, trumped by amendments and administrative bias. Programs fragile in social capital and unskilled in mobilization, religious, and financial resources are fraught with rigid oversight and a disregard for cultural relevance and human development. We find that communities have not been engaged to inform program practices that are culturally specific and influenced by the Afrocentric paradigm.

Methodological steps for infusing the Afrocentric paradigm in community-defined practice

Theory is elusive and esoteric if it is rendered inapplicable. In order to engage communities through an Afrocentric paradigm is to ensure that those working in the community have a framework in which to apply it. These mezzo-steps are necessary to take to infuse in “community-defined practice (CDP) that is practice located in community-based organizations and initiatives whose implicit intent and explicit consequence is to restore and reinforce African American meaning of being a whole person (Goddard, et al, 2014, p. 17). CDP advances problem solving by creating and designing activities that develop the African cultural person. There are methodological steps that social workers should take to apply the Afrocentric paradigm in praxis:

(1) Social workers may start the process of infusing the Afrocentric paradigm in community practice by including cultural brokers in the helping process. Cultural brokers (Siegel, Jackson, Montana, & Hernandez, 2011) are persons who are working in the community but may not embody the theoretical knowledge of Afrocentricity and other African- influenced theories of social change. Persons such as ward and block captains, youth leaders in creative productions, athletics, and safety, business owners, educational specialists within school boards/systems, para-professional health and childcare workers, service workers with local public health/social services and housing, religious and spiritual leaders, local leaders associated with city government, and city departments are appropriate cultural brokers to be trained in the theoretical knowledge.

(2) Social workers should create experiential scenarios for cultural brokers to test their knowl- edge of the Afrocentric paradigm. Suitable scenarios include having cultural brokers journal data of community resource persons, observe and document cultural-oriented behaviors, and discuss these behaviors with identifiable local leaders who are not aware of cultural-

JOURNAL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 77

oriented behaviors. These activities are helpful in applying the Afrocentric paradigm in the natural environment.

(3) Social workers should include engagement with apps such as Nextdoor and AlertID with poor communities, for modeling Afrocentric theory by posting observations of cultural-oriented behaviors. They showcase healthy extended families activities, youth who have achieved the art of code switching at work and at school, availability of cultural brokers in the community, and reciprocal arrangements of employment and resources that can provide brokers with community examples to demonstrate the applicability of Afrocentricity.

(4) Social workers should meet with economic leaders of local credit unions and other business cooperatives to explore possibilities of funding pilot projects such as Afrocentric rites-of-passage programs, adult cultural development programs, and healthy relationship groups for young parents working to exit public welfare and child support enforcement, to examine the efficacy of programs that “reflect and reinforce the restoration of an African American general design for living and patterns for interpreting reality (worldview) as grounded in African American behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, habits, beliefs, customs, language, rituals, ceremonies, meta- phors and practices” (Goddard et al., 2014, p. 15). Moreover, these entities may be willing to fund aesthetic and creative production programs so that the impoverished may be exposed to theater that reflects African American humanism.

(5) Social workers studying African and African American culture recognize the role of father, grandfather, uncle, and godfather as compulsory in community and family interventions. Applying the African worldview to this fact means to create private mentoring relationships between men who are father, grandfather, uncle, and godfather willing to develop family skills, and other men who become cultural brokers to younger men and boys who are bereft of these models in their lives. Private mentoring ushers in the male development process without embarrassment and public scrutiny.

(6) Service workers who do not have social work degrees but are employed in helping activities should be solicited to become a cultural broker, because they are often direct line profes- sionals and para-professionals in the African American community. This provider commu- nity is often ignored because they do not belong to a professional organization. Yet their application of the Afrocentric paradigm is vitally important, as they are on the frontline of crisis, respite, and hospice action. Workers in day care, homeless shelters, halfway facilities, correctional outlets, residential homes, after-school programs, juvenile detention facilities, and medical clinics are where the applicability of the Afrocentric paradigm can be influential.

(7) Social workers should consider introducing the Afrocentric paradigm to colleagues who engage the community in their residences, such as family interventionalists, crisis workers, home health care workers, mental health workers, child welfare program specialists, and guardians ad litem. Empowering these workers with this knowledge and application only strengthens CDP and advances culturally relevant work for group change. Case management is a utility that organizes resources and tasks, yet it is not an empowering, change-altering manner that is empowering, inspiring, fulfilling and engaging to those who receive on-the-job training.

(8) Social workers should introduce to public housing directors interventions of home organization and domestic skills for adults in need of learning how traditional African American homes are fashioned. Not only proposing life skills and/or fiduciary budgets, but morning and evening rituals and affirmations of parents and children, reflective time considering history as found on history calendars, playing cultural and spiritual music, and monitoring language are some aspects of home organization and domestic skills reflective of African cultural orientation.

These are some methodological community-defined practices that may be utilized to begin the process of transformative change, with the acknowledgment that these practices need to be con- sistently implemented for years.

78 C. N. FAIRFAX

Conclusion

Rates of residential racial segregation impacting economic and social well-being, unemployment, home ownership, and other quality-of-life issues remain consistently worse for African Americans. Yet, application of the Afrocentric paradigm addresses human development, and group advancement, as it is infused with African principles of cognitive and behavioral directives that are vital portions of African humanity. Additionally, the Afrocentric paradigm acknowledges that community is a system that informs the person, who then informs the community. Without this interchange, community intervention is fragile and substandard. Furthermore, the need to engage CDP corrals social workers to apply the Afrocentric paradigm in ways that address African human behaviors and community behaviors, so that other local entities are inculcated, informed, and developed in a local network of change. Training persons as cultural brokers is an important aspect in mezzo-community work, as it requires developing a local network of change. Actualizing the Afrocentric paradigm in community praxis overcomes stale and monotonous ineffective interventions of life skills/financial planning, parenting classes, halfway housing employment training, and truancy to mount an efficient CDP of human development as a person of African descent to thrive in a country that is dubious about their existence and humanity.

References

Agulanna, C. (2010). Community and human well-being in an African culture. Trames, 14(3), 282–298. doi:10.3176/ tr.2010.3.05

Asante, M. K. (1987). The Afrocentric idea. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Asante, M. K. (1999). The painful demise of Eurocentrism. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Bailey, M. J., & Duquette, N. J. (2014). How Johnson fought the War on Poverty: The economics and politics of

funding at the Office of Economic Opportunity. Journal of Economic History, 74(2), 351–388. doi:10.1017/ S0022050714000291

Boone, R. W. (1972, September). Reflections on citizen participation and the Economic Opportunity Act. Public Administration Review, Special Issue: Citizens Action in Model Cities and CAP Programs, 32, 444–456. doi:10.2307/ 975014

Brueggeman, W. G. (2013). History and context for community practice in North America. In M. Weil, M. Reisch & M. L. Ohmer (Ed.), The handbook of community practice (pp. 27–46). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Chaskin, R. J. (2013). Theories of community. In M. Weil, M. Reisch, & M. L. Ohmer (Eds.), The handbook of community practice (pp. 105–121). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Fairfax, C. N. (2011). Locating African personhood theory and praxis: Filling the gap in social welfare programs. Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(5), 122–138.

Fairfax, C. N. (2015). A policy analysis of the bureaucracy of Virginia’s Department of Housing and Community Development. Paper presented at the Virginia Social Science Association, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Goodard, L., Haggins, K. L., Nobles, W. W., Rhett-Mariscal, W., & Williams-Flournoy, D. (2014). Redefining the definition of an African American community-defined practice: A supplemental report to the African American Population Report for the California Reducing Disparities Project: We Ain’t Crazy! Just coping with a crazy system: Pathways into the Black population for eliminating mental health disparities. Retrieved from http://www.cibhs.org/ sites/main/files/file-attachments/african_american_community-defined_practice_paper_0.pdf

Graham, M. J. (1999). The African-centered worldview: Developing a paradigm for social work. British Journal of Social Work, 29, 251–267. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjsw.a011445

Grayman-Simpson, N. (2012). Black community involvement and subjective well-being. Journal of Pan African Studies, 5(3), 26–42.

Kambon, K. (1992). The African personality in America: An African centered framework. Tallahassee, FL: Nubian Nation Publications.

Laing, B. Y. (2009). A critique of Rothman’s and other standard community organizing models: Toward developing a culturally proficient, community organizing framework. Community Development, 40(1), 20–36. doi:10.1080/ 15575330902918931

Li, P. K. C. (n.d.). Training agendas for social workers in a culturally sensitive practice. National Social Science Association. Retrieved from http://www.nssa.us/journals/2007-28-2/2007-28-2-13.htm

Nobles, W. W. (1986). African psychology: Towards its reclamation, reascension and revitalization. Oakland, CA: Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture.

JOURNAL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 79

Parham, T. A. (2002). Counseling persons of African descent: Raising the bar of practitioner competence. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Pellabon, D. A. (2007). An analysis of Afrocentricity as a theory in social work. Advances in Social Work, 8(1), 169–183.

Reisch, M., Ife, J., & Weil, M. (2013). Social justice, human rights, values and community practice. In M. Weil, M. Reisch, & M. L. Ohmer (Eds.), The Handbook of Community Practice (pp. 73–103). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Rothman, J. (1996). The interweaving of community intervention approaches. Journal of Community Practice, 3(3–4), 69–99. doi:10.1300/J125v03n03_03

Rubin, L. (1969). Maximum feasible participation: The origins, implications, and present status. The Annuals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 385(1), 14–29. doi:10.1177/000271626938500103

Schiele, J. H. (2000). Human services and the Afrocentric paradigm. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. Siegel, D., Jackson, M., Montana, S., & Rondero Hernandez, V. (2011). Use of cultural brokers as an approach to

community engagement with African American families in child welfare: An empirically based curriculum. Berkeley, CA: University of California at Berkeley, California Social Work Education Center. Retrieved from http://www. csulb.edu/projects/ccwrl/CalSWEC_curriculum_products.htm

Thabede, D. (2008). The African worldview as the basis of practice in the helping professions. Social Work/ Maatskaplike Werk, 44(3), 233–245. Retrieved from http://socialwork.journals.ac.za/pub/article/viewFile/237/219

Waldron, I. (2010). The marginalization of African indigenous healing traditions within western medicine: Reconciling ideological tensions & contradictions along the epistemological terrain. Women’s Health & Urban Life: an International and Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(1), 50–71.

Weil, M. (1994). Editor’s introduction. Journal of Community Practice, 1(3), 1–5. doi:10.1300/J125v01n03_01 Weil, M., Reisch, M., & Ohmer, M. L. (2013). Contexts and challenges for 21st century communities. In M. Weil, M.

Reisch, & M. L. Ohmer (Eds.), The Handbook of Community Practice (pp. 3–25). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

80 C. N. FAIRFAX