Safety Together: Addressing gender-based violence and the family policing system - West Coast LEAF A community-driven research project on the intersections of gender-based violence and family policing...

Throughout the report, community experts call for bold shifts—away from family policing and towards family well-being. These calls for change are powerful invitations for all of us to push for system transformation today. 4/4

Explore the report 👇

#GenderBasedViolence #FamilyPolicing

We’ve often heard from families and caregivers who are survivors of gender-based violence that the #familypolicing system (also known as child welfare) doesn’t offer safety for them or their children. In fact, GBV is a common basis for a family’s involvement in the family policing system. 2/4

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

1. Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System: The Case for Abolition by Alan Dettlaff 2. Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts 3. The School for Good Mothers: A Novel by Jessamine Chan 4. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian 5. Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell 6. We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba 7. We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson 8. Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare by Dorothy Roberts 9. The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy and Juvenile Justice by Geoff K. Ward 10. Border and Rule by Harsha Walia

Ten Books to Get To Know Me (upEND edition) 📚

And if you want to learn more about #FamilyPolicing and #Abolition, we have a whole #syllabus on our website. upendmovement.org/syllabus/

Introducing Kyra Lewis from the Healthy and Free Tennessee Youth Council. 🎤 We are energized by the passion and ideas these young people have for building a future without #FamilyPolicing! #Abolition

The kids aren't OK: Foster care costs rising with no end in sight This year Haywood added over $1 million to its foster care budget, by far the biggest increase in county expenses, but the reason is anything but simple.

This year Haywood County, NC ADDED over $1 million to its #FamilyPolicing budget. Imagine what that money could do to support families instead. #Defund

Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse - upEND Movement Drawing on the wisdom of survivors, Asgarian posits powerful questions that challenge us to respond more humanely to child sexual harm in ways that prioritize youth agency, center healing, and hold…

"You might say that the dismal statistics about child sexual abuse point to the need for more #familypolicing, more state interference. But if you listen closely, many survivors are saying that’s not what they need or want at all.” #ReclaimingSafety buff.ly/esqjYKI

Reclaiming Safety - upEND Movement

What questions have you wrestled with around #FamilyPolicing and #Abolition? How can we help?

#ReclaimingSafety buff.ly/eZrm6sy

Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse - upEND Movement Drawing on the wisdom of survivors, Asgarian posits powerful questions that challenge us to respond more humanely to child sexual harm in ways that prioritize youth agency, center healing, and hold…

We’re always asked, “If we abolish the family policing system, what do we do when children are sexually abused?”

This paper is an answer. Read our latest #ReclaimingSafety installment by journalist Roxanna Asgarian. #FamilyPolicing #Abolition

buff.ly/esqjYKI

Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse - upEND Movement Drawing on the wisdom of survivors, Asgarian posits powerful questions that challenge us to respond more humanely to child sexual harm in ways that prioritize youth agency, center healing, and hold…

Instead of #familypolicing, survivors talk about what real help looks like: responses that provide safety and support, honor family and community relationships with empathy and compassion, and value healing, connection, accountability, and care. buff.ly/esqjYKI

#Ice is bigger than some #militaries, doesn't respect laws, hides their identity, violates #DueProcess, inflicts #SexualViolence, & "loses" #children.

#AdoptionTrafficking #ChildTrafficking #FamilyPolicing #LaborTrafficking #SexTrafficking #FamilySeparation #DisabilityCommunity #ResidentialSchools

^ + "arrest & institutionalize 'mentally disabled'" gives them the formula to separate #families everywhere. #DisabledParent, #DisabledChildren, whoever they want to label as such -

The #60sScoop will seem pale in comparison. They needed to expand #ICE for us. #FamilyPolicing #FamilySeparations

TLDR: #FamilyRights *ARE* #ChildRights
They are reciprocal & expansive, inherent; typically not in opposition to one another, but in opposition to intrusions/overreach of government/state authority. #FamilyPolicing #Parenting #14thAmendment #FamilyLaw #FamilyCourt #LegalKidnapping #ChildTrafficking

No more family separations!

#familypolicing

"My healing journey revealed not only my own wounds, but the collective wounds of many Black fathers like me who had been disconnected from their children, misunderstood by society, and left out of conversations about family restoration."

Birth alerts are meant to help children at risk of abuse. They are routinely used against Aboriginal mothers Medical professionals are required to report at-risk children to child protective services – but to some agencies ‘just being Black’s a risk’

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... #indigneousaustralia #childremovals #familypolicing #stolengenerations2025

Can we please start equating family separation with #familypolicing, #fostercare, #prison, and #adoption because all of those systems degrade families in the same way as family separation by ICE.

They all harm families! They all dehumanize parents! They all create trauma!

Purple text on a white and purple background that looks like a news website: West Coast LEAF in the news: Headline: Afro-Indigenous mom wins case in top ‘B.C.’ court against agency that seized her kids. ‘Byline: Justine’ believes her appeal victory will ‘definitely help other families’ involved with the child welfare system who face discrimination. By Brielle Morgan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Read the full article at www.westcoastleaf.org/2025-media-coverage/ A central image of “Justine” (a pseudonym) attending a Mother’s Day powwow at Trout Lake in “Vancouver” with her four daughters on Saturday. Photo by Brielle Morgan.

Check out our latest interview with IndigiNews on the decision in the R.R. v VACFSS case, and why "relying on stereotypes in such decisions, far from being in the best interests of the child, is in the best interests of no one”: westcoastleaf.org/2025-media-c... #BCPoli #BCNews #FamilyPolicing

Read more about R.R. v VACFSS and how the BC Court of Appeal's decision highlights the need for greater accountability for a system that continues to inflict harm on Indigenous families: westcoastleaf.org/work/r-r-v-v... #BCPoli #HumanRights #FamilyPolicing

White and yellow text over an image of a Black mother with long braids hugging her child wearing a hoodie with a blue and purple filter: Breaking news: BC Court of Appeal decision on R.R. v VACFSS. The Court’s ruling upholds human rights protections for families facing systemic harm and discrimination by the family policing system. West Coast LEAF logo.

Breaking: The BC Court of Appeal released a pivotal decision in R.R. v VACFSS that upholds human rights protections for families facing discriminatory practices by the family policing system. Read the press release: westcoastleaf.org/rr-v-vacfss-decision #BCPoli #HumanRights #FamilyPolicing

I hope you feel seen, heard, validated and believed. However you feel makes sense. #mothersday #adoption #familypolicing #suicideprevention

Erin Miles Cloud @movfamilypower.bsky.social reminds that different localities are in different places with movement against #familypolicing. With @skatzesq.bsky.social Tarek Ismail @cunylaw.bsky.social Baher Azmy @ccrjustice.org Lisa Sangoi @reproaction.bsky.social

2025 BLU Report Draft_final_pages

Read BLU’s full 2025 report on family policing reparations here: bit.ly/3RYHokf #FamilyPolicing #ChildWelfare #Reparations #BlackLivesMatter

Still true today.

#familyseparation
#familypolicing
#adoption
#immigrants
#humanrights

Mandatory Reporting Saves Lives | The Imprint While some families endure hardship due to unnecessary CPS involvement, eliminating mandatory reporting can harm children, writes Darcy Olsen.

imprintnews.org/opinion/mand...

"Agencies can leverage technology for smarter screening, using predictive analytics and AI tools that have proven effective in distinguishing high-risk cases from those that may be better served through community-based support."

#SocialWork #FamilyPolicing

So let's fight against family separation in any form.

It's all devastating and causes life-long trauma.

Get angry about all of it!

#adoption
#familypolicing
#immigrants

Policing Is Reproductive Oppression: How Policing and Carceral Systems Criminalize Parenting and Maintain Reproductive Oppression

Reproductive justice necessarily includes three interconnected tenets: the right to have a child under conditions of one’s choosing, the right to not have a child using birth control, abortion, or abstinence, and the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments free from violence by individuals or the state.

This means that the prison industrial complex, food insecurity, gender binaries, environmental racism, access to health insurance, welfare and public assistance, and restrictions on civil liberties are all scrutinized by a reproductive justice framework

Much like other social service programs, families often come into contact with the family policing system because of the ways that societal failings cause social and economic vulnerabilities. They are then punished, making family policing a primary site of reproductive oppression for Black and Indigenous parents.

Policing is reproductive oppression.

In this journal article, Maya Pendleton and Alan Dettlaff underscore how carceral systems criminalize parents. In other words, if we want to have true #ReproductiveJustice, policing AND #FamilyPolicing have to go.

Article 🔗 https://buff.ly/3WfIACs

Family separations are a colonial and genocidal tactic. Listen to the "Warrior Women" episode of The upEND Podcast featuring special guest Marcella Gilbert. #WarriorWomen #Solidarity #FamilyPolicing

upendmovement.org/podcast/epis...

Watching Home Alone and thinking about how if the McCallisters were poor people of color, the movie would have ended with CPS removing kevin 🙃 #familypolicing

Vanessa was ‘kidnapped’ by the family policing system aged 10. Now, she’s fighting for other First Nations families The child protection system didn’t protect Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts – it removed her from a loving family. Her book is a reality check.

“When you take a child, you are taking sovereignty, their role, their connection – you are taking whole communities that live inside that little being,” writes Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts in her memoir "Long Yarn Short." #FamilyPolicing

theconversation.com/vanessa-was-...

Warrior Women | The upEND Podcast Season 2, Episode 3 - upEND Movement

Marcella is a boarding school survivor and is now involved with the Standing Strong grandmothers group whose main focus is to create local action that resists #familypolicing and keeps children in their communities.

upendmovement.org/podcast/epis...