Rise Magazine

Rise magazine is written by parents who have faced the child welfare system in their own lives. Many people don’t know that the majority of children who enter foster care return home to their parents–and that most children in care wish for a lifelong relationship with their parents, whether they live with them or not. Helping parents is fundamental to helping children in foster care.

Through personal essays and reporting, parents illuminate every aspect of the child welfare experience from parents’ perspectives. Sign up for a free individual subscription or purchase print copies to hand out to parents and child welfare staff. For professionals, Rise stories offer insight that can improve how you engage and support fragile families. For parents, Rise offers information, peer support, and hope.

Rise Magazine

I Was Pushed to “Voluntarily” Surrender My Rights—and Still Didn’t Get to Visit My Daughter

November 16, 2021 by

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I lost custody of my daughter after having to make a decision that no parent should ever have to make. Should I fight the termination of parental rights (TPR) or should I “voluntarily” surrender my parental rights with a small chance that I might get visits and pictures and we might be able to write to each other? I was given this choice by the ACS worker when I was going to court—sign the TPR … Read More

Rise Magazine

‘A Call to Action’: New Research Finds Extremely High Rates of Investigations of Black, Brown and Native Families

November 03, 2021 by

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Parents at Rise have long documented how the family policing system affects Black and brown people living in low-income areas of NYC. In July, a team of researchers from Duke University and Rutgers University published the study, “Contact with Child Protective Services is pervasive but unequally distributed by race and ethnicity in large US counties.” As its title suggests, the paper finds that the system impacts the lives of far too many Black and brown families.

Dr. Frank Edwards, an assistant professor at Rutgers University’s School of Criminal Justice who studies race and state violence, policing and family separation, was part of the team that worked on this study. Here, he discusses their findings in NYC and nationally, mandated reporting, investigations and why he is an abolitionist. 

Rise Magazine

‘Our Leadership is an Extension of Our Values’: Getting to Know Rise Co-Executive Directors Jeanette Vega Brown and Bianca Shaw

October 12, 2021 by

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In April, the Rise Advisory Board announced that it selected Jeanette Vega Brown and Bianca Shaw as the next leadership of Rise. Here, Jeanette Vega Brown and Bianca Shaw, now co-executive directors of Rise, tell us about who they are, how they got involved in the parent-led movement for family justice, their roles and vision for the organization and what is staying the same at Rise. They also discuss why it is meaningful for Rise to be led by two women of color, including a parent impacted by ACS.

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