AAFC History

The African American Family Conference  is the vision of filmmaker/author Dana Ross. In more than 7 years of research for her documentary and book entitled “Black Fatherhood: Reconnecting With Our Legacy,” Dana traveled all over the United States in service to a principle she fervently believes is essential to the preservation of the African American family structure – African American fathers.

She has interviewed over 500 African American fathers to give viewers an intriguing look at fathers from their time of enslavement to the present. The interviews were conducted with men from all walks of life; single, young, old, divorced, married, imprisoned, wealthy, poor, etc. However, within their differences was a common thread. Irrespective to the area of the United States they resided in, African American fathers and their families were facing the same issues: poor education systems, lack of health care, welfare, drug addiction, unemployment, domestic violence, juvenile delinquency and various media and social injustices which plague the African American family today.

In an effort to fully understand these issues and the average family’s lack of awareness on where to go to receive proper support, Dana contacted several organizations, programs and agencies across the country designed to assist African American families. Organizations reported funding issues which hinder  proper governance, execution and promotion of their programs.  Communities and organizations both faced legitimate issues, however the circumstances still needed to be addressed to assist both groups to progress to making positive change in their families and communities.

From this, the idea of forming an initiative to be a proactive solution to these problems was conceived; The African American Family Conference and counterpart The AAFC Aftercare Program.