The Strong African American Families (SAAF) program is a culturally tailored, family-centered intervention for 10-14 year-old African American youth and their caregivers. The goal of SAAF is to prevent substance use and behavior problems among youth by strengthening positive family interactions, preparing youth for their teen years and enhancing caregivers’ efforts to help youth reach positive goals.

For parents, SAAF aims to strengthen parenting practices related to monitoring and supporting youth, articulating parental expectations for alcohol use, communicating with youth about sex, and promoting positive racial socialization. It also works to promote youths’ ability to focus on goals for the future, resist involvement in risk behaviors, maintain negative images of risk behaviors and peers who engage in them, and accept parental influences.