JOIN A STATEWIDE MOVEMENT
Californians from across the state are gathering in Sacramento on January 18th to demand that our state and local counties protect children and restore families. Youth, parents and families directly impacted by “child protective services” investigations, criminalization, child removals, foster care and/or permanent separation are leading the campaign united with social justice organizations from across California.
Family separation is a cruel practice, and one we must fight to end. We declare ourselves, our children, families and communities as free from America’s and California’s child-snatching policies that are deeply rooted in the genocide of Native communities and stealing of Native children; enslavement, separation and sale of Black communities; separation of migrant families through brutal border policies, impossible immigration processes and deportation; and the criminalization of poverty, housing insecurity and mental health.
Our objectives are to:
Dismantle racist and dehumanizing policies and practices that have led to the removal of hundreds of thousands of California children – overwhelmingly poor, Black, Latinx and California Native youth – from their families.
Radically transform the so-called “child welfare system” in order to implement a new community vision for child, parent and family wellness and reunification.
Decriminalize poverty, housing insecurity and mental health that are too often used to blame and break up families rather than addressing historical structures of economic and racial injustice.
Reduce the harms of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act by changing how it is implemented throughout the California and also mobilize the political will of the state and its federal representatives to champion the repeal of AFSA at the federal level. Under AFSA, parental rights are terminated if a child is in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months, regardless of whether parents have been detained or incarcerated or have another reason why they have been able to meet court deadlines. Across the U.S., 73,000 parents had their rights terminated since 2000.
Has your family been affected by family policing or the child welfare system? We’re collecting stories to build California's statewide movement to create a community vision for child, parent, and family wellness. Our goal is to unite all of us in implementing a new vision for family safety and success that centers on the needs of both children AND parents, and recognizes the strengths and importance of family, community and culture in every child’s life.
