New Look at Diverse Families

Professionals who work with families must be culturally competent in today’s melting pot society.  Certified family life educators Sharon M. Ballard and Alan C. Taylor of East Carolina University pool the knowledge of family life educators in their new book, Family Life Education with Diverse Populations, to offer professionals and students strategies for working with 11 diverse groups.

The book examines the unique characteristics and strengths of rural families, prison inmates and their families, court-mandated parents and families, military families, grandparents raising grandchildren, American Indian families, black families, LGBT families, and Latino, Asian and Arab immigrant families.

In the book’s first chapter, Ballard and Taylor introduce a new framework for best practices in family life education, which outlines necessary program and educator components that are essential when providing effective family life education within the community.

Subsequent chapters prescribe the best practices for working with individual groups.

“We believe the book presents a good balance of research-based information and practical experience to be very helpful to students in classrooms and to professionals working with families in the community.” Taylor says.

Purchasing information is available at www.sagepub.com/books/Book235331/reviews.