JUNE is Stolen Children’s Month. 🔥 Join us for a virtual rally on June 1 to honor children stolen by the family policing system, ICE, youth incarceration, private adoption, forced treatment facilities, and every other system that tears families apart. bit.ly/SCM-kickoff-26

Changes are bittersweet. 💙 Josie Pickens will transition from her role as upEND's Program Director to a new position in Houston, TX. This isn't goodbye, though - she will join our team in an advisory capacity. Read her letter: upendmovement.org/2026/05/01/t...

A NEW EPISODE of the upEND Podcast is out now! We talk to Dinah Ortiz about what real safety looks like for families when a parent uses substances.

upEND Director Josie Pickens writes about her experience with a delivery at 25 weeks and why it’s more important than ever to address the Black maternal health crisis in the city she calls home. #BlackMaternalHealthWeek newsone.com/6803365/blac...

"Reclaiming Safety for Children Whose Parents Use Substances" is a brand-new essay in collaboration with @drugpolicy.org. Authors @kassandrafred.bsky.social, Dinah Ortiz, and Mark Z. challenge us to shift our understanding of drug use and parenting. buff.ly/MjXwSw0

If we abolish the family policing system, how do we respond to child sexual abuse? In this new episode of The upEND Podcast, we talk with Roxanna Asgarian about the topic no one wants to address. @strawburriez.bsky.social

Last week, we joined organizers, birth workers, and advocates for a panel hosted by Avow Texas. The conversation confronted a painful truth: Houston remains the deadliest major U.S. city for Black people to give birth. Grateful to share space with partners doing this work.

Communities need resources. Let's start there. #ReclaimingSafety Listen to the full episode with Angela Burton: buff.ly/Dc1G90f

Angela Burton gives an example of what #LivingAbolitionNow can look like when we promote healing and accountability within our communities, without punishment and policing. #ReclaimingSafety Listen to the full episode on The upEND Podcast: upendmovement.org/podcast/epis...

Angela Burton is the editor of our "Reclaiming Safety" essay series, and she explains what you can expect during this season of The upEND Podcast as we focus on frequently asked questions about #FamilyPolicing #Abolition. Listen to the full episode: buff.ly/Dc1G90f

Friends, please share this as widely as you're sharing posts about abuses occurring in other arms of policing. Kids belong with their families and communities and deserve to grow up free of fear.

This episode is a love letter to the grandmothers who raised us. Listen to “Reclaiming Safety” on The upEND Podcast with the brilliant Angela Burton. #BlackHistoryMonth buff.ly/hgykX0Z

A new episode of The upEND Podcast is out now! Listen to “What About Disabled Parents?” with special guest Dr. Robyn Powell! We’ve been following Dr. Powell’s work for years, so it was great to finally have this conversation.

The practice of forcibly separating Black and Indigenous children from their families is used by the state to maintain a system of white supremacy that is foundational to this country. The family policing system is not about #ChildWelfare. Read the full zine: upendmovement.org/zine (link in bio) 🔗

“Abolish the steel traps.” Repost from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. 🎨 🖌️

ICE must be abolished, and its abolition is possible. We fight for abolition and the end of family separation because we know that state violence is not inevitable. buff.ly/zNmmB93

And… we’re on Substack! We’re in the process of migrating our newsletter to Substack so we can expand our reach and make our work more easily accessible. Check out our first post and subscribe to our new email newsletter! buff.ly/jc2gcDC

Bringing back this older episode The upEND Podcast with @silkys13.bsky.social because we need to stay really clear about our demands for #Abolition. #AbolishICE

Season 3 of The upEND Podcast starts NOW featuring an introduction by our friend and co-author Angela Burton! upendmovement.org/podcast/epis...

We love seeing our zine out in the wild! It can be made with one sheet of paper, scissors, and staples. It’s a colorful way to start conversations with friends about what true safety can look like without the #FamilyPolicingSystem. upendmovement.org/zine

The same structures that separate families through incarceration and ICE are connected to the #FamilyPolicingSystem. The whole carceral web needs to be dismantled for our communities to be safe and whole. #AbolishICE #Abolition Read the full zine: upendmovement.org/zine 🔗

The child welfare system doesn’t help families. We more accurately call it the family policing system. Read the full zine: upendmovement.org/zine/

Check out our new zine, “Abolish the Family Policing System.” ✂️ A printable version is available on our website for sharing with friends and neighbors. upendmovement.org/zine/

upEND Movement, MJCF Coalition, and Mothers Outreach Network signed onto an amicus brief to appeal the decisions in the State v. Nieves and State v. Cifelli, and the appeal was upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court. buff.ly/TXzEyne

Join Zoe Bambara and Dr. Mali Collins to discuss framing the Reproductive Jusice Movement for 2026. Dr. Collins is the author of Scrap Theory which discusses how the archival erasure of Black motherhood is an urgent concern. December 13, 6:30pm buff.ly/SWWDxZg

Join @haymarketbooks.org for a virtual book launch of "How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action” with featured speakers Dorothy Roberts, Andrea Ritchie, and Erin Miles Cloud. 📅 December 1 🕐4-5:30 pm ET 🔗 Register: www.howtoendfamilypolicing.com/events

Despite the struggles the community faces at Montrose Grace Place, it’s a JOYFUL place. ❤️ Love is contagious there. And we hope you’ll get to experience it through the portrait of the youth featured in upEND’s short doc #AVisionOfGrace. buff.ly/EtK0G9t

International experts are now echoing what U.S. communities have been saying for generations: children and families deserve support, not surveillance. Read the full report: buff.ly/DVBMlPi

"One of the most important systems of control and mass separation is hidden in plain sight: the child welfare system.” @truthout.org truthout.org/articles/ice...

upEND advocates for the complete #Abolition of what you many know as the 'child welfare system'. But we understand it more accurately as the #FamilyPolicingSystem because that’s how it functions.

upEND’s Josie Pickens writes for @newsoneofficial.bsky.social about a Michigan mother charged with “food stamp fraud.” When a mom trying to feed her kids gets criminalized, that’s not justice. That’s surveillance, control, and punishment wrapped in the language of “help.” newsone.com/6490272/mich...

Ten Books to Get To Know Me (upEND edition) 📚 And if you want to learn more about #FamilyPolicing and #Abolition, we have a whole #syllabus on our website. upendmovement.org/syllabus/

Introducing Kyra Lewis from the Healthy and Free Tennessee Youth Council. 🎤 We are energized by the passion and ideas these young people have for building a future without #FamilyPolicing! #Abolition

Yesterday we joined the Healthy and Free Tennessee Youth Council for a Family Policing Abolition 101 workshop. The brilliance and courage of these young leaders reminds us how important it is to listen to and learn from youth who are system impacted. ❤️ 🔥

This year Haywood County, NC ADDED over $1 million to its #FamilyPolicing budget. Imagine what that money could do to support families instead. #Defund

A federal suit was filed against Georgia's Department of Human Services on behalf of Annalinda Martinez, a mother who lost custody of six daughters in 2018. Since then, the state has charged her nearly $500 a month to keep them in the foster system.

New Mexico will become the first state in the country to begin offering free universal child care. Starting in November, the state will offer child care, or reimbursement for child care costs, to every family in the state, regardless of income.

"Decades before the pandemic made isolation and alienation a mainstream concern, it was already central to how my family and countless other families had experienced the family policing system,” writes Courtnie McMillan.

"No pasarán!" Check out this collection of resources from @interruptcrim.bsky.social on keeping ICE out of schools. 🚌🍎📚 buff.ly/C36wrwb

Once again the thing that always works wherever it's tried works in the place where it was tried.

Reminder: most adoptees and foster youth are removed from their families due to racism and classism, not abuse. Not unwanted. Stolen.

A guaranteed income program has been life-changing for Philly moms. “It would stop DHS from taking our children. Because by us not having the money, they consider us in poverty, so they’re saying it’s neglect, and they’re taking our kids." resolvephilly.org/gih/philly-j...

“We are each other’s hope.” Joshua Dorty, an advocate with Youth Voices Empowered and a star of upEND’s short documentary #AVisionOfGrace, talks about revisiting Tony’s Place in Houston after finding housing stability and community. buff.ly/EtK0G9t

⚠️ 30% of youth in the foster system identify as LGBTQ. ⚠️ 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. In our film #AVisionOfGrace, youth share their lived experiences with houselessness and family separation while celebrating the joy and healing they’ve found in community. upendmovement.org/grace

"Conservative politicians lean on tropes about 'groomers' and 'pedophiles' that drum up support from a wide swath of Americans... And the laws are getting increasingly punitive.” #ReclaimingSafety @strawburriez.bsky.social buff.ly/esqjYKI

"Child sexual abuse is a lot more common than many people realize. One landmark CDC study found that one in four girls and one in six boys experience sexual abuse before they turn 18,” reports @strawburriez.bsky.social #ReclaimingSafety buff.ly/esqjYKI

Host a screening of our new film #AVisionOfGrace in your community! Submit a request form to receive a free toolkit with - instagram templates - flyers - a discussion guide - the film and trailer upendmovement.org/grace/

Courtney Sellers, Executive Director of Montrose Grace Place talks about the impact of #AVisionOfGrace on the youth in the documentary. #YouthHomelessness #QueerYouth #Houston upendmovement.org/grace

We’re always asked, “If we abolish the family policing system, what do we do when children are sexually abused?” This paper is an answer. Read our latest #ReclaimingSafety installment by journalist Roxanna Asgarian. #FamilyPolicing #Abolition buff.ly/esqjYKI

When harm occurs, we should consider responses that - provide safety and support - honor family and community relationships with empathy and compassion - value healing, connection, accountability, and care #ReclaimingSafety Download the new essay by @strawburriez.bsky.social 🔗 buff.ly/esqjYKI