Letter from the Director

A family in South Carolina’s Pee Dee region lives in a cinder block house where, a short while ago, the roof was caving in, the plumbing and electricity were dangerously defective, and cockroaches ruled. A faith-based group repaired the house, but the family members still depend on community resources to help them maintain the house and sustain themselves. The family, an energetic group who love one another dearly, includes a preschool boy, his mom (who dropped out of school and bore him when she was seventeen), his grandmamma (who cannot read), and his great-grandmamma (who has Alzheimer’s). There are no men in the home, and none of the women are regularly employed. 

Nearby, various organizations deliberate about how best to strengthen this community’s safety, health, economy, educational performance, physical appearance, and hope for the future. Compassionate volunteers and philanthropists ponder how to best to invest their skills and resources. Often, these concerned citizens call on the USC Institute for Families in Society as they pursue the most effective ways to support and strengthen families within their communities.

As I write this letter, faculty members at the Institute have direct consulting relationships with over 200 unique community-based organizations and schools and several state agencies and foundations in the Carolinas plus active involvement with national and international organizations. Our broad approach to research emphasizes discovery of new knowledge and teaching community groups to study themselves for continuous quality and results improvement. We disseminate research findings about effective family support from across the world in ways that are understandable and applicable to life in local communities.

Almost a decade ago, when this Institute was created, USC joined the chorus of voices across the world calling for new knowledge about how to help families survive and thrive in a changing world. In 1992, the United Nations proclaimed that the family is universally recognized as the basic unit of society, families are diverse and evolving, and families face what may be the most difficult challenge in the history of humanity because many societies are changing so rapidly that the speed of change alone causes family stress.

Since that time, the Institute has gathered a cadre of scholars to study how communities support families as they nurture their members throughout the lifespan. We have practiced a philosophy of being good neighbors by exploring our own backyard, the Carolinas, as we apply a participative action research model. Our projects cover an array of topics such as fathers, elders, domestic violence, family members with disabilities, housing ... the list is long and continually evolving.

Across the projects, we find ourselves facilitating connections among people from diverse sectors of society and forging partnerships for the common goal of strengthening families. We find ourselves bridging relationships between policy makers and professionals, philanthropists and community activists, global and local organizations, professors and students, diverse racial and ethnic groups, and government and voluntary agencies. We walk hand in hand with the front-line citizens who resist the impact of the growing rifts in our society that threaten family stability: the income gap, the digital divide, racial, and ethnic disparities, and differences in social capital.

As we approach 2001, the bicentennial year of the University of South Carolina, we embrace a fresh approach to our research and service agenda. Building on lessons learned across our various projects, we will expand our research portfolio to include additional projects of national significance, disseminate more widely our understanding of families in a multicultural context, enhance the study and use of technology to strengthen families and communities, and release several books and articles about our work. Together with our community-based sponsors and partners, the Institute for Families in Society will mobilize the collective wisdom of scholars and citizens as they help families nurture their members.