About Us

The National African American Child and Family Research Center is designed to provide national leadership and excellence in community-engaged research to better serve African American children and families. Funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS), The Center is housed within the Prevention Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine. Focusing exclusively on African American children and families, it is the first of its kind.

The pejorative body of research centered around African American families has been mostly conducted by individuals outside of the African American community using a comparative research framework that did not take into consideration the cultural differences, historical factors, and systemic social inequalities of the African American experience. The Center seeks to change the cultural and institutional narratives about African American families by conducting research that puts the full African American experience into perspective.