Search Results for: they will not win

‘Our First Priority Is Making Sure People Are OK’

May 20, 2021 by

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Fear of the family policing system can prevent families from accessing needed resources and support. Through community-led mutual aid, community members support each other, often responding more quickly than systems and without intrusive processes or the threat of a report to ACS for not having food or resources for your family.

Here, Kelvin Taitt, co-founder of East Brooklyn Mutual Aid and a community organizer in the Ocean Hill and Brownsville areas of Brooklyn, New York, discusses how mutual aid is different from services through the system, building relationships, keeping resources in the community and supporting investment in Black-owned businesses.

Someone To Turn To: A Vision for Creating Networks of Parent Peer Care

May 12, 2021 by

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This Insights paper presents Rise’s vision for a peer network of collective care by and for parents. This fall, Rise created a parent Peer Vision Team to explore building a peer care model that can strengthen families while reducing contact with the family policing system.

Nationwide and in New York City, where Rise is based, it’s crucial to broadly reorganize supports for families so that accessing resources and services does not put parents at risk of state intervention in their families. Government dollars should target community conditions, not families. This report shares a vision for one critical component of strong communities: networks of peer support and community care.

Targeted by Two Systems: ‘I couldn’t focus only on how devastating it was for my child to be hurt and to lose my mother. I also had to worry about ACS.’

April 15, 2021 by

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March 26, 2019 was a day I’ll never forget.

Early that morning, I got a phone call from my sister that our mom was put on life support.

I was a block away at a different hospital dealing with another emergency. A CT scan confirmed that Miles had a potential fracture in his wrist as well as a broken leg. I felt heartbroken and confused.

I couldn’t accompany him to his X-ray or visit my mother. Instead, I had to meet with an abuse doctor and Special Victims Unit detectives.

A week after the X-ray, we had a Child Safety Conference with ACS. Everything neutral was made into a negative.

Around the same time, there was a story in the news about a white actress, Jenny Mollen. She had dropped her son and he fractured his skull. She talked openly about how hard it was for her as a mother and that she was so thankful for the hospital staff. They didn’t question her motives.

Our babies were both hurt unintentionally – but we were treated very differently.

The Danger of a Misdiagnosis of Child Abuse

April 13, 2021 by

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In When the Misdiagnosis Is Child Abuse, published in The Atlantic and The Marshall Project, journalist Stephanie Clifford reported about child abuse pediatricians — doctors who are trained to determine whether kids’ injuries are accidental or inflicted. In most cases, these conclusions can’t be made with certainty — but the child welfare system often takes them as fact. As Clifford documented, this has resulted in the unnecessary separation of families, incarceration of parents who have not harmed their children and trauma for both children and parents.

Here, Clifford discusses her reporting process and what she learned from parents, as well as the role of power dynamics, racism and classism in these situations. She shares recommendations for change and for how parents can protect themselves from a false accusation.

Rise & Shine 2021 Begins!

February 12, 2021 by

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The 2021 Rise & Shine Parent Leadership Program launched online in early February, beginning with a focus on community building using restorative justice circles. In our first weeks, we built our connection and relationships, centered our values, developed a community agreement, shared self-care strategies and established our “buddy system” of peer support.

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