Throughout its long history, CSI has always been at the forefront in ground-breaking programming for at-risk children. One of the most successful—and most controversial—was the innovative and effective Black Homes for Black Children program.
A 120th Moment :: Black Homes for Black Children
A 120th Moment :: Black Homes for Black Children
By the late 1970s, the number of infants available for adoption had declined dramatically, but there remained a critical need to find homes for African American children of all ages. Child Saving Institute was at the forefront in addressing this need by offering “Project Placement” a special needs/black adoption program. Then, in 1982 CSI received funding through the National Benevolent Association and matched by the CSI Board of Directors to form a program called Black Adoption Unlimited. Shortly thereafter, CSI received a federal grant administered through the Nebraska Department of Social Services, which allowed the agency to implement the ground-breaking program Black Homes for Black Children. The BHBC program, started in October of 1984, concentrated on intensively identifying, recruiting and preparing black and interracial families for adoptive placement of black and bi-racial children and youth.
Donna Tubach-Davis, who started out at CSI as a social worker and eventually led the organization as CEO for more than 25 years, remembers having a passion for the plight of African American children in the system as early as the mid-1960s. She brought this passion with her when she joined the staff of CSI in 1971 and began actively working toward more permanent placement for black children, even before there were any formal programs in place. “It’s not that we were against trans-racial homes for black children, as some opponents thought, but that we wanted to find more potential homes. There were so many more children in need of homes than there were homes available,” Tubach-Davis explains. “And the truth was, African Americans were adopting more frequently than Caucasians, but the process was more informal within their communities.”
Tubach-Davis said CSI began an intensive outreach program into these communities, starting with caseworkers becoming actively involved in African American churches and organizations in Omaha. Word of the program spread, and soon its success was being touted nationally as well as locally.
In its early days, the program was publicized primarily through staff presentations to churches, community service organizations and professional groups with close ties to the community, as well as a series of public service announcements using Susan Taylor, then Editor in Chief of Essence Magazine, billboards, direct mail, flyers and newspaper announcements. When Nebraska DSS cut funding to the Black Homes program in 1986, the program’s advocates—the Black Homes Advisory Board, CSI’s Board of Directors, the staff and enthusiastic adoptive parents—mobilized and succeeded in getting one-third of the funding reinstated. Additional financial support was provided by the National Benevolent Association and the Black Caucus of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and a grant awarded by the Kiewit Foundation in 1988. To keep the program going, CSI also launched a series of large-scale fundraising events. Among the offerings: speaking events featuring world-famous African American leaders such as Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu and Father George Clements; annual Gospel Jubilees; and celebrity auctions, featuring donated items from Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Whoopi Goldberg and many others.
The Blacks Homes for Black Children program formally ended in 1992 due to lack of funding and adoption changes implemented through the *Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA), but the ideals of the program—to find more families for children in need of forever homes—lived on in other programming offered through CSI. In the end, BHBC recruited more than 300 black adoptive families and placed more than 100 black and biracial children in forever homes.
*Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA)
Since 1972, when the National Association of Black Social Workers first issued a public statement opposing Transracial Adoption, controversy has raged about placing children with families across ethnic and racial lines. Concerned about the impact of this policy on children waiting for families and for its broader message about racism in our society, organizations such as the National Committee to End Racism and the National Council for Adoption moved to action. They published studies, advocated with the courts and state legislatures, and testified before Congress, urging that federal law be changed to ban discrimination in adoption.
One U.S. senator took on this cause as his own personal mission, vowing to see the law changed before he left office. And, true to his word, Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) succeeded in attaching his bill, the Metzenbaum Multiethnic Placement Act, to another law moving through the Senate. His bill essentially required that those receiving federal funds could not delay or deny the placement of a child in adoption or foster care because of considerations of race or ethnicity.
