This workshop will examine an innovative project, Inua Ubuntu ("To lift up; I am, because we are") aimed at reducing disproportionality rates for African American male children served in Allegheny County's (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Department of Human Services, Office of Children, Youth and Families - ACCYF). The goal of Inua Ubuntu is to provide culturally-based intervention and child protective services aimed at keeping African American male children safely in their own homes with their families and to reduce the rate of African American males requiring out of home placement. Inua Ubuntu proposed that linking these children to robust culturally- centered community services, rather than making them child welfare cases, can improve outcomes and reduce the number of youths removed from their homes. First year results support that claim. Ninety percent of all children served remained in their own homes requiring no further child protective services involvement. Furthermore, appreciable gains were made in child safety, permanency, well-being and self efficacy.

Electrical Engineering 227BT, 001 - Fall 2014 Convex Optimization - Laurent El Ghaoui Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs