The upEND Podcast

How can we support survivors of domestic violence and their children without the child welfare system?  State intervention often forces survivors into impossible choices: remain in a harmful situation to keep their children or engage with a legal system that might use their trauma as evidence of an unstable home. In this episode, we sit down with Ashley De Anna Albert, an abolitionist, writer, and...

“Parents who use drugs, we're at the bottom of the totem pole.” We explore what real safety looks like for families when a parent uses substances. Stigma, shame, and anti-Blackness shape the way families are treated by the family policing system, but community centered care can save lives and families.  Together, we imagine a world where families impacted by substance use are met with compassi...

If we abolish the family policing system, how do we respond to child sexual abuse? Abolition helps us create a world where all children are safe and supported by their communities. We’re addressing the problem, not just sweeping it under the rug.  We speak with award-winning journalist and author Roxanna Asgarian about her essay “Reclaiming Safety for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse.” Roxanna expl...

The family policing system considers parents with mental health issues and other disabilities to be an inherent threat to their children. We reject that premise.  Because of ableism, the legacy of eugenics, and the violence of poverty, disabled parents face a high risk of separation by the family policing system.  In this episode, Dr. Robyn Powell discusses how the child welfare system weaponizes...

Welcome to Season 3 of The upEND Podcast where we’ll be answering all of your burning questions about family policing abolition! If we get rid of the child welfare system, what will happen when children are harmed? Are abolitionists saying that child abuse is okay?  Reclaiming Safety is upEND’s new anthology series answering important, frequently asked questions and proposing effective, humane res...

Welcome to the Season 2 Finale!  Reproductive justice has always been the foundation of upEND’s work to abolish the family policing system. Both movements focus on bodily autonomy and our human right to keep ourselves and our children safe from oppressive systems. That’s why we wanted to speak with Ash Williams , a Black trans abortion doula, storyteller, community organizer, and public intellectu...

The foster system has more than double the representation of LGBTQ youth than the general population. And LGBTQ youth of color have significantly greater odds of being in the foster system compared to white LGBTQ youth. When marginalized identities intersect across race, gender, and sexuality, we see the harms of the family policing system become compounded.  As a young person, our guest experienc...

Schools have become sites of policing and surveillance that mirror the criminal legal system. To address this, we need to understand what our guest calls the “school-to-prison nexus,” the intersecting web of racist, carceral systems that criminalize our youth. We discuss the history of organizing against the school-to-prison pipeline and how the call for “Counselors Not Cops” needs an abolitionist...

The trauma of state-sanctioned family separations is shared by victims of immigrant detention and the family policing system (also known as the child welfare system). Additionally, immigrant detentions are so intertwined with the prison industrial complex that they are nearly the same. Abolitionists must see these systems as connected if we want to create a successful strategy to dismantle them. ...

Family separations have been used as a colonization and genocidal tactic since before the founding of America and these practices continue today. Native children are currently removed from their homes at 2–3 times the rate of white children. They are often taken away from relatives and their communities, even when those options are available. In this episode, we’ll talk about the legacy of boardin...

Welcome to the upEND 2024 Convening! This episode was recorded live in Houston, TX on October 10, 2024.  Our liberation movements are intertwined. What are our strengths and opportunities in working together to achieve our collective goals? Guest host Corey Best moderates a conversation with activists working against prisons, immigrant detention, family policing, and more. Episode Guests:   Corey...

The call to end modern-day slavery and the prison industrial complex is gaining momentum because of organizers committed to realize the dream of abolition. At upEND, we understand that the demand to end incarceration is deeply linked to the movement to end family policing.  Nearly half of the people in state prisons are parents to children under 18 , which pushes thousands of kids into the foster...

In the first episode of Season 2, we discuss how the movement to abolish family policing is intrinsically linked to struggles for freedom in Palestine and Sudan. Solidarity unites us and makes our movements stronger.  Harm is exported and imported around the world. Tactics of family separation in the U.S. through the child welfare system mirror state violence in other countries. Our guests make th...

In the first season of the upEND Podcast, we explored the past and present of the family policing system, commonly misidentified as the child welfare system.  Now, we’re widening our scope.  How does family policing intersect with reproductive justice and Black maternal health? Are borders and deportations a tactic of family policing? What can we learn from international freedom movements in the w...

The upEND team recaps season one and shares their visions for a future without family policing.   We break down recurring myths about “child welfare,” discuss the abolitionist communities growing from spaces such as book clubs, and reflect on topics like the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). About Our Guests:  Maya Pendleton  has been a part of the upEND movement since its inception. S...

After looking closely at how the family policing system operates, we zoom out to discuss how family policing is an extension of other carceral systems and how abolition is the solution. We just need to stretch our imagination.  About Our Guest:  Maya Schenwar is the director of the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism, and the board president of Truthout . She is the co-author (with Victoria...

Why keep advocating for solutions that don’t work?  In this episode, we'll discuss reforms in the family policing system and how these reforms don't actually help to end the harms perpetuated against Black children, families, and communities. We'll also be discussing the differences between reformist reforms and abolitionist steps. About Our Guests:  Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, schol...

The trauma of family separations and foster care are well documented, so why is this harm ignored?  In episode 5, we discuss the harms of family separation and the outcomes of family policing involvement for children and parents.  Joyce also shares more about her advocacy for Family Miranda Rights and her personal experiences as a mother impacted by the system.  About Our Guests:  Joyce McMillan i...

“ Families I work with tell me it’s like being on pins and needles every day of their life. It really impacts their mental health, their physical well-being, as well as their housing and job prospects. These families can’t mess up at all. It’s not a way to live.” In previous episodes of the podcast, we've covered the history of family separation and family policing from the era of chattel slav...

How did the family policing system become what it is today?  We’ll take a look at some of the key policies and ideas from the early 1900s through 1970s that are still in place today including the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and other white supremacist ideas that emerged at the time. About Our Guests:  Angela Olivia Burton was recently Special Counsel for Interdisciplinary Matt...

It is commonly believed that the first child welfare system was created in 1874 in response to the abuse of a girl named Mary Ellen Wilson, but there’s actually more to that story.  In the second episode of Season 1, we investigate the early history of the child welfare system from the time of emancipation during the mid-19th century through the early 20th century.  About our Guests:  Dorothy Robe...

Family separation was a key issue used to advance the movement to end slavery in the United States, and the family policing system builds upon slavery’s foundation, attacking the humanity of families seen as undesirable. In the first episode of Season 1, we explore the notion of abolition then and now, and the idea of abolition as a project of not just removal, but also creation of the society we...

So, what is family policing abolition? Cohosts Josie Pickens and Jaison Oliver introduce The upEND Podcast and give an overview of what listeners can expect in the first season of the upEND podcast which will release monthly episodes starting in September 2023.    Episode guest Alan Dettlaff is a professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where he also served as Dean f...