Points of light: informal adoption in the black community

Children Today,  Sept-Oct, 1990  by Charmaine Yoest

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In the past, close-knit communities have served another purpose-to a large degree the extended family has been the black community's Child Protective Service. A young mother raising a child alone frequently did so in the context of a watchful, protective, extended family. Child abuse or neglect did not go long undetected. One young girl quoted in All Our Kin, Carol Stack's study of the black family, said:

  "I wasn't living at home at the
     time, but mamma kept Christine
     most of the time.  One day mamma
     up and said she was going
     to take my child and raise her
     light.  She said that I was immature
     and that I had no business
    being a mother the way I was
    acting.  An my mamma's people
    agreed and there was nothing I
    could do.  So mamma took my
    child."  (13)

According to Hill, the lowest levels of child abuse are among informal adoption arrangements. But even in cases when a child is removed from a home by the state, the extended family is still a resource. A study on formal foster care by the National Black Child Development Institute found that relatives were considered for placement assistance in 75 % of the cases, and nearly 60 % offered some type of assistance.(14) One of the most common reasons for denying placement assistance was lack of financial or housing resources.

Informal adoption arrangements offer several major advantages to the children. Because the arrangements are usually made intra-family or within the kinship network, to some degree a sense of belonging and continuity is maintained for the child. Also, informal adoption can provide security and care for a child who might otherwise have to cope with the terrible disruption and impermanency of the foster care system.

Also, the involvement of the young mother's family and the support of the extended family framework in raising the child can somewhat mitigate the stress and isolation a young mother faces as a result of the absence of the father. For instance, Nadine talks with great fondness of the fun of growing up in the midst of so many cousins, all of them raised as brothers and sisters.

Looking at informal adoption reveals a community adapting and flexibly responding to its own needs. Instead of the stereotypical conniving welfare mother, we see great dignity personified. We come away with a picture of hope and possibilities-some, like Nadine and Gale, have indeed made it out of the darkness and into the light with the sacrificial support of loved ones.

The system of informal adoption has been successful in its primary, and most fundamental, objective: providing homes for needy children. But in some other, significant ways, it falls short of the optimal situation for the child. And although in the real world, the optimal cannot always be attained, it must always remain the goal. Hill himself says:

  "The informal adoption mechanism
    appears to perform some
    vital functions for black families
    in such areas as income maintenance,
    day care, services to
    out-of-wedlock children and unwed
    mothers, foster care and
    adoption.  But very little is
    known about the adequacy of
    these self-help efforts and coping
    strategies among low-income
    blacks-a primary target
    group of most social welfare policies
    today.  And, until one assesses
    the adequacy of these
    coping strategies, it is not possible
    to effectively determine the
    kinds of additional supportive
    services and programs that are
    needed to enhance the quality of
    life of low-income and minority
    children in general."  (15)