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This chapter focuses on the strengths of racial and ethnically diverse families, especially immigrant and low-income families, and the importance of valuing and respecting family customs and traditions. Many of these families are resourceful and resilient, which can have implications for the strategies that practitioners use in bolstering families’ skills, knowledge, and abilities.

This chapter focuses on the challenges diverse families face. The implications of these challenges will be discussed, including how practitioners can address these challenges during their interactions with families, such as strengthening their knowledge base and providing information about resources.

This chapter describes the CRAF-E4 family engagement model. This model is presented as a way to increase an organization’s capacity to engage and partner with racially and ethnically diverse families.

This chapter focuses on the biases and stereotypes that practitioners may bring to their relationships and interactions with families. These biases and stereotypes may impact the relationships and interactions that practitioners have with families. They may lead to low expectations of what minority families are capable of in supporting their children’s development and learning and eventual future success.

This chapter provides an opportunity for practitioners to learn about the diversity within the United States. For instance, we will describe the change in family demographics and structure that has occurred over the past 50 years by showing current population trends in race/ethnicity, poverty rate, family structure, and immigration status.