Advocacy Resources

We often face this roadblock: standing before a judge, requesting concrete services or emergency funds for a client, and hearing the state or agency say, "There’s no money for it." Yet, when the state moves to remove a child, funds appear instantly. To dismantle this...

In child welfare proceedings, decisions regarding "best interest," visitation frequency, and parental fitness are frequently driven by personal opinions and subjective biases rather than objective science. When race is ignored or treated as an inconvenient topic,...

Pregnancy is supposed to be a time of care, privacy, and support, but for many low-income, Black, and Brown families, it has instead become a dangerous point of state surveillance and control. Medical settings are quietly operating as gateways into the family...

If you advocate for families in the child welfare system, you are likely familiar with the systemic hurdles faced by parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The system is inherently reactive and frequently demands that neurodivergent parents...

If you are advocating for families in the child welfare system, you know the scenario all too well: A parent fights for months or years to reunite with their child. Yet, when it comes time for reunification or a Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) trial, the state...

When adoption crosses racial and cultural lines, the prevailing narrative often insists that "love is enough," assuming that as long as a child is safely cared for, everything will work itself out. However, for many transracial adoptees and impacted families, this...

The family policing system has a backbone most people never talk about. It's not the investigations. It's not the case plans or the foster placements. It's the government's power to permanently end a family's legal existence, what courts have called the civil death...

The family regulation system frequently operates as an economic machine that thrives on secrecy and a lack of constitutional awareness. To truly protect families, professionals must move beyond the norms of the courtroom and actively put power back into the hands of...

Advocacy Resource: Dismantling the Family Policing Machinery from the Inside Out When fighting the child welfare system, advocates often face a legal machine that claims to operate on objective science, standardized metrics, and benevolence. However, insights from...