This paper addresses ways ways in which African-American families can influence their children's development, usually with guidance from school or other community agents. We discuss the importance of "discipline styles" for effective parenting and emphasize an approach to family involvement in child development utilizing a child's strengths. We argue that psychosocial postures of African-American youth can move from nihilism, representing a "psychology of oppression", to a "positive black psychology" based on the Wolin's (1993) "challenge model". In partnerships with schools and other community organizations, families can adopt strengths-based influence strategies derived from empirical data, most of which require only modest access to financial or other resources. (Contains 1 table.)