FACES: An advocacy intervention for African American parents of children with autism

Children with autism and their families often face challenges accessing early intervention and related services. African American children face additional challenges due to disparities in diagnoses and access to services. These disparities present a great need for parent advocacy to combat culturally insensitive service delivery and strained parent-professional partnerships. In this sequential mixed methods study, we piloted a 6-week parent-training intervention (FACES) among African American parents of children with autism and evaluated participants’ empowerment, advocacy, and partnerships pre- and postintervention. Results indicated that parents’ advocacy, sense of empowerment, and community support were strengthened, following the FACES program. Participants also described the FACES intervention as socially valid. Implications for research and practice are discussed.