This collection brings together articles by African American authors who are committed to research, policies, and programs affecting African American children and families. The articles are grouped into sections on policy, research, and practice issues; clinical techniques and treatment models; and new perspectives in child welfare. The following are included: (1) "African American Children in the Modern Child Welfare System: A Legacy of the Flemming Rule" (Claudia Lawrence-Webb); (2) "Family Preservation and Support Services: A Missed Opportunity for Kinship Care" (Julia Danzy and Sondra M. Jackson); (3) "Child Protection Risk Assessment and African American Children: Cultural Ramifications for Families and Communities" (Sheryl Brissett-Chapman); (4) "An Out-of-Home Care System in Crisis: Implications for African American Children in the Child Welfare System" (Annie Woodley Brown and Barbara Bailey-Etta); (5) "Achieving Same-Race Adoptive Placements for African American Children: Culturally Sensitive Practice Approaches" (Ruth G. McRoy, Zena Oglesby, and Helen Grape); (6) "African American Families and HIV/AIDS: Caring for Surviving Children" (Alma J. Carten and Ilene Fennoy); (7) "'Of Mind, Body, and Spirit': Therapeutic Foster Care--An Innovative Approach to Healing from an NTU Perspective" (Shawan D. P. Gregory and Frederick B. Phillips); (8) "African American Female Adolescent Identity Development: A Three-Dimensional Perspective" (Joyce West Stevens); (9) "A Rite of Passage Approach Designed To Preserve the Families of Substance-Abusing African American Women" (Vanesta L. Poitier, Makini Niliwaambieni, and Cyprian Lamar Rowe); (10) "An Afrocentric Program for African American Males in the Juvenile Justice System" (Aminifu R. Harvey and Antoinette A. Coleman); (11) "Same-Race Practice: Do We Expect Too Much or Too Little?" (Bernadette Jeffrey Fletcher); (12) "Why African American Adoption Agencies Succeed: A New Perspective on Self-Help" (Geraldine Jackson-White, Cheryl Davenport Dozier, J. Toni Oliver, and Lydia Barnwell Gardner); and (13) "Cultural Competence in Child Welfare: What Is It? How Do We Achieve It? What Happens without It?" (Anna R. McPhatter). Each chapter includes references. (Contains 4 figures and 14 tables.) (SLD)