upEND Director Josie Pickens writes about her experience with a delivery at 25 weeks and why it’s more important than ever to address the Black maternal health crisis in the city she calls home. #BlackMaternalHealthWeek
newsone.com/6803365/blac...
“Reclaiming Safety for Children Whose Parents Use Substances” cover image features a mom being hugged by her teenage son and an illustration of a living room behind them.
By punishing parents who use substances, the family policing system has become a collaborative arm of the war on drugs. Image of an apartment complex with an eye drawn over it.
True support for children and parents begins with a fundamental shift in understanding drug use and parenting. 1. Addressing substance use may not be a family’s primary need. 2. The family policing system is poorly equipped to provide the support families actually need and creates additional harm. 3. Shame and stigma prevent people from getting the support they need.
MOVING FROM SURVEILLANCE TO SUPPORT: 1. Support the needs of parents and advocate for the whole family. 2. Address the material, everyday circumstances of families to create meaningful, sustained support and change. 3. Create community and kin-based care networks
"Reclaiming Safety for Children Whose Parents Use Substances" is a brand-new essay in collaboration with @drugpolicy.org.
Authors @kassandrafred.bsky.social, Dinah Ortiz, and Mark Z. challenge us to shift our understanding of drug use and parenting. buff.ly/MjXwSw0
If we abolish the family policing system, how do we respond to child sexual abuse? In this new episode of The upEND Podcast, we talk with Roxanna Asgarian about the topic no one wants to address. @strawburriez.bsky.social
Last week, we joined organizers, birth workers, and advocates for a panel hosted by Avow Texas. The conversation confronted a painful truth: Houston remains the deadliest major U.S. city for Black people to give birth. Grateful to share space with partners doing this work.
Communities need resources. Let's start there. #ReclaimingSafety
Listen to the full episode with Angela Burton: buff.ly/Dc1G90f
Angela Burton gives an example of what #LivingAbolitionNow can look like when we promote healing and accountability within our communities, without punishment and policing. #ReclaimingSafety
Listen to the full episode on The upEND Podcast: upendmovement.org/podcast/epis...
Angela Burton is the editor of our "Reclaiming Safety" essay series, and she explains what you can expect during this season of The upEND Podcast as we focus on frequently asked questions about #FamilyPolicing #Abolition.
Listen to the full episode: buff.ly/Dc1G90f
Friends, please share this as widely as you're sharing posts about abuses occurring in other arms of policing. Kids belong with their families and communities and deserve to grow up free of fear.
This episode is a love letter to the grandmothers who raised us. Listen to “Reclaiming Safety” on The upEND Podcast with the brilliant Angela Burton. #BlackHistoryMonth buff.ly/hgykX0Z
A new episode of The upEND Podcast is out now! Listen to “What About Disabled Parents?” with special guest Dr. Robyn Powell! We’ve been following Dr. Powell’s work for years, so it was great to finally have this conversation.
A historical illustration of Black children being taken from a Black mother by enslavers: During slavery, family separations were used as a threat and a punishment. A photo of hundreds of Indigenous children outside of a boarding school: Indigenous children were stolen and violently stripped of their language and culture to destabilize tribal communities. A photo of President Bill Clinton signing the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA): As the system became more formalized, it began targeting Black families. Today, **more than half** of all Black children in the United States are investigated by child welfare authorities.
The practice of forcibly separating Black and Indigenous children from their families is used by the state to maintain a system of white supremacy that is foundational to this country. The family policing system is not about #ChildWelfare.
Read the full zine: upendmovement.org/zine (link in bio) 🔗
An illustration of a school surrounded by open steel traps. Speech bubbles above say, “Steel trap setters need to be better trained. We need to reform the steel traps. If only we had oversight of those steel traps."
“Abolish the steel traps.”
Repost from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. 🎨 🖌️
ICE must be abolished, and its abolition is possible. We fight for abolition and the end of family separation because we know that state violence is not inevitable.
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And… we’re on Substack!
We’re in the process of migrating our newsletter to Substack so we can expand our reach and make our work more easily accessible. Check out our first post and subscribe to our new email newsletter!
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Bringing back this older episode The upEND Podcast with @silkys13.bsky.social because we need to stay really clear about our demands for #Abolition. #AbolishICE
Season 3 of The upEND Podcast starts NOW featuring an introduction by our friend and co-author Angela Burton!
upendmovement.org/podcast/epis...
A gloved hand holds copies of upEND’s zine in front of a little library on the sidewalk.
The interior of the library box holds zines, books, and a flyer for a fundraiser for Gaza families where people can purchase books, crafts and more.
We love seeing our zine out in the wild! It can be made with one sheet of paper, scissors, and staples. It’s a colorful way to start conversations with friends about what true safety can look like without the #FamilyPolicingSystem. upendmovement.org/zine
The family policing system is just one part of the carceral web. From incarceration to borders to family policing, we oppose the surveillance and state-sanctioned separation of children from their families in all forms. Collage image shows a Black mother with an infant, a police officer, and an illustration of a watchful eye.
The same structures that separate families through incarceration and ICE are connected to the #FamilyPolicingSystem. The whole carceral web needs to be dismantled for our communities to be safe and whole. #AbolishICE #Abolition
Read the full zine: upendmovement.org/zine 🔗
The child welfare system doesn’t help families. We more accurately call it the family policing system. This collage features news articles about the child welfare system tearing families apart and shows a picture of a Black mother holding an infant.
The child welfare system doesn’t help families. We more accurately call it the family policing system.
Read the full zine: upendmovement.org/zine/
New upEND Zine! You can read it in a few minutes. Download a printable copy. Get an intro to family policing abolition. upendmovement.org/zine
The cover of the zine says Abolish the Family Policing System in a collage style with lime green and black and white elements.
Check out our new zine, “Abolish the Family Policing System.” ✂️ A printable version is available on our website for sharing with friends and neighbors. upendmovement.org/zine/
It will take varied responses across local, state, and national levels to reduce the reach of the family policing system. We’re thankful for the organizers chipping away at the system, one case, one march, one project at a time. buff.ly/TXzEyne
And of course, this surveillance is racialized, disproportionally targeting Black and Indigenous families. Research shows that injuries in Black children are nine times more likely than those in white children to be reported as abuse. buff.ly/TXzEyne
Mandated reporting is violent. Because doctors are encouraged and required to report families for suspected abuse, it creates distrust between communities and medical professionals and may dissuade parents from seeking critical emergency care for their children.
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Their decision means that symptoms commonly associated with “shaken baby syndrome” cannot be used as evidence of abuse on a theory of shaking alone without some other impact to a child’s head.
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upEND Movement, MJCF Coalition, and Mothers Outreach Network signed onto an amicus brief to appeal the decisions in the State v. Nieves and State v. Cifelli, and the appeal was upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court.
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Join Zoe Bambara and Dr. Mali Collins to discuss framing the Reproductive Jusice Movement for 2026. Dr. Collins is the author of Scrap Theory which discusses how the archival erasure of Black motherhood is an urgent concern.
December 13, 6:30pm
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Join @haymarketbooks.org for a virtual book launch of "How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action” with featured speakers Dorothy Roberts, Andrea Ritchie, and Erin Miles Cloud.
📅 December 1
🕐4-5:30 pm ET
🔗 Register: www.howtoendfamilypolicing.com/events
Despite the struggles the community faces at Montrose Grace Place, it’s a JOYFUL place. ❤️ Love is contagious there.
And we hope you’ll get to experience it through the portrait of the youth featured in upEND’s short doc #AVisionOfGrace. buff.ly/EtK0G9t
International experts are now echoing what U.S. communities have been saying for generations: children and families deserve support, not surveillance. Read the full report:
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And if you want to continue learning about the connections between #ICE and the #FamilyPolicingSystem, listen to “Unbuild Walls” with Silky Shah on The upEND Podcast. buff.ly/ebPItcb @silkys13.bsky.social
