Get to Know NdCAD

Our Mission and Vision
We exist to strengthen the cultural connections within communities of African descent that promote, sustain, and enhance the healthy development of our children.

• We are a place where the African spirit is nurtured and renewed
• We envision a place where African people come together to learn of and from ourselves
• We envision a place where we come to learn from our elders and children 
• We envision a place where we affirm our global family
• We envision a place where we take care of family business

Network for the Development of Children of African Descent (NdCAD) is a family education center based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We are a nonprofit organization that was established in 1997, dedicated to serving children, youth and families. We provide a variety of culturally-specific family literacy programs aimed at strengthening families and communities to prepare children for success in school and life.

Our programs are unique in that they are designed and used as learning models for NdCAD and for our stakeholders. Our innovative, culturally-grounded,
two-generation approach generates outcomes and insights that allow us to learn, extrapolate, and demonstrate “what works” in terms of how best to reach and teach our children and engage parents/guardians as well as community members in supporting healthy child development outcomes.

We share what we learn, by providing professional development training workshops to institutions, service providers and policy makers with the goal of informing and influencing systems change.

Our programs are embedded with principles and values which promote the inherent strength and wisdom of families and community–structured within the frame of the following seven key principles and approaches: Literacy and Identity Connections, Root Issues, Action Research, Value-Driven Approaches, Parent and Community Engagement, Cultural Learning Spaces, and Self-Determination.