"It takes a village to raise a child"

Research

Thanks to a five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a taxpayer-supported federal agency, we can carry on our research at the Village Project much more successfully. We are currently working on the Community Connections study. Community Connections include relationships between friends, family, neighbors, teachers, and others who may know each other and cooperate to help a young person in their lives to succeed and to be happy. For example, some parents talk to family, neighbors, and friends about how their child is doing in school, and before long everyone is asking that child about school and encouraging them to do well. This is an illustration of the African proverb “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” When members of a child’s village work together, this is a positive Community Connection, and we think that the more a child has, the better. Our current study focuses on African American families, because culture is an important part of a child’s experiences, relationships, and well-being. The Community Connections study has three phases. Our first phase of the study will take a close look at the different kinds of Community Connections that support youth and how they happen. Youth, their parents, and community members will tell us about their Community Connections - people that they know and the ways that they come together in support of each youth. In the second phase of the study we will use what we’ve learned to figure out how to accurately measure the amount and types of Community Connections that kids have. In the third phase, we will measure Community Connections in a large group of African American youth and their families in order to test our theory that kids living in high risk areas will feel better and act in more positive ways if they have more Community Connections. In other words, although kids living in lower income areas affected by high crime sometimes end up having emotional or behavioral problems, we think that having lots of caring people who work together to help them grow up can protect them from the risks of the streets. In the long run, we want to help make sure that all kids in the community have the Community Connections that they need. This goal is as important to us as the challenge of making communities safer and making sure that neighborhood residents have everything they need to live comfortably.In the future, we plan to expand our research by including families from other cultures. We also plan to study the importance of Community Connections to youth who live in other settings, such as suburban communities. These days all kids face risks and we would like to better understand ways of helping them to have positive, happy lives.

Contact us
News
Research
About Us
Current Projects
Philosophy