I Place My Hand in Yours: A Social Justice Based Intervention for Fostering Resilience in Street Life Oriented Black Men

Abstract

Despite some political, economic, and social gains, an overwhelming number of Black men in the United States face daily threats to their physical and psychological well-being. Although there have been calls for increased training in cultural competence in the fields of mental health, education, and medicine, the steadily increasing rates of racial disparities in these fields indicate that there remains a need to develop effective strategies to engage, treat, and foster resilience in marginalized communities. The authors offer Sites of Resilience (SOR) (Brown, 2004; Payne, 2001, 2005, 2006) as the theoretical lens for better understanding resilience and the Cultural Context Model (CCM) (Almeida, 1998, 2003; Almeida, Dolan-Del Vecchio, & Parker, 2008) as a clinical model for engaging and treating street life oriented Black men in need of mental health services. A clinical case study of “Kode” illustrates how SOR theory and the CCM can be applied to create a therapeutic milieu that promotes healing and liberation. These approaches may increase client engagement, retention, as well as bolster street life oriented Black men’s ability to better negotiate their environments.