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Rally Calling for Change in Child Welfare System in Sacramento on May 11

“Children should be protected and supported by the government by providing services to keep families together instead of assuming parent inability to care,” said Michelle Chan, founder and director of California Families Rise. “We believe in empowering families across California, and that is why we are introducing a family bill of rights, to protect our children and their futures. 

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Michelle Chan. Photo courtesy of Michelle Chan.
Michelle Chan. Photo courtesy of Michelle Chan / Facebook

By Tanya Dennis

There are over 58,000 children in California who are on welfare or probation supervised placement within the child welfare system.

Michelle Chan, founder and director of California Families Rise is organizing a “Families Resist” rally in Sacramento on May 11, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. on the state Capitol steps.

The purpose of the Families Resist Rally is to bring child welfare and family court system-impacted families together in racial, reproductive, and poverty justice movements to disrupt, dismantle, reform, and transform the child protection system in California.

The keynote speaker, District 54 Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, is the author of AB 1686, a bill that proposes to reduce the number of child support referrals made to pay for children’s cost of foster care. A Los Angeles Democrat, Bryan is an advocate for poor, underfunded communities as well as the working class.

California Families Rise was founded in 2021, evolving out of a parents’ rights activist group that Chan started in 2017 called Parents Against CPS Corruption.

Chan is a child welfare system-impacted mother who was a nursing student and homemaker before her own child protection case. Her parents’ rights activism grew organically out of what she saw as an unmet need from the community.

Chan notes that, “The family policing system in the United States aka Child Protective Services or CPS, has waged war on Black, indigenous and poor families, a population especially vulnerable and overrepresented in “the system.”

CPS breaks apart families, and punishes marginalized people, Chan says, also pointing out that “The system is rooted in a history of state sanctioned racial violence. … In practice, the family regulation system shatters the lives of both children and adults by exposing families to long-lasting generational trauma, negatively impacting both the physical and mental health of all involved.”

Nationwide, Black children account for 14% of the population but represent nearly 25% of CPS cases, and approximately 50% of indigenous children will experience a child welfare investigation before they turn 18.

“Poverty is the single most important predictor of placement in foster care and the amount of time spent there,” Chan said.

As with other judicial systems, the system lacks accountability, transparency and oversight and the results are families are too often unnecessarily destroyed and children are placed in foster and group homes, where conditions are worse than in the homes they were removed from, Chan asserts.

“Children should be protected and supported by the government by providing services to keep families together instead of assuming parent inability to care,” Chan said. “We believe in empowering families across California, and that is why we are introducing a family bill of rights, to protect our children and their futures.

“My greatest hope is that this rally will help to decriminalize and destigmatize family custody issues, whether be it from CPS, Family, or Probate court,” Chan said. “Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor families are especially vulnerable because they often do not have the resources to fight back. I am hoping that on May 11, the families will unite to put an end to this madness once and for all.”

For more register for the rally or for more information go to:  www.familiesresist.com  The Families Resist handbook is the set of demands: https://familiesresist.com/families-resist-handbook

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024

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Who are the Alameda County District 4 Supervisor Candidates’ Top Campaign Contributors?

Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.

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Jennifer Esteen. (Campaign photo) and Supervisor Nate Miley. (Official photo).
Jennifer Esteen. (Campaign photo) and Supervisor Nate Miley. (Official photo).

By Zack Haber

Nate Miley, who has served on Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors since 2000, is running for reelection to the District 4 supervisor seat.

Jennifer Esteen, a nurse and activist, is seeking to unseat him and become one of the five members of the powerful board that sets the county’s budget, governs its unincorporated areas, and oversees the sheriff, Alameda Health System, and mental health system.

District 4 includes most of East Oakland’s hills and flatlands beyond Fruitvale, part of Pleasanton and unincorporated areas south of San Leandro like Ashland and Castro Valley.

Voting is open and will remain open until March 5.

In California, campaign donations of $100 or more are public record. The records show that Miley has received about $550,000 in total campaign donations since he won the previous District 4 election in March 2020. Esteen has raised about $255,000 in total campaign donations since she started collecting them last July. All figures are accurate through Feb. 20.

While Miley has raised more money, Esteen has received donations from more sources. Miley received donations of $100 or more from 439 different sources. Esteen received such donations from 507 different sources.

Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.

Nate Miley’s top campaign contributors:

The California Apartment Association, a trade group representing landlords and investors in California’s rental housing business, has spent about $129,500 supporting Miley’s election bid through about $59,500 in ads against Esteen$55,000 in ads supporting Miley, and $15,000 in campaign donations.

The independent expenditure committee Preserve Agriculture in Alameda County has spent about $46,025 supporting Miley through about $27,200 in their own ads, and $18,825 in donations to his campaign. Preserve Agriculture has supported reelection efforts for former Alameda County DA Nancy O’Malley, and Sheriff Greg Ahern, a republican. It’s received funding from ChevronPG&E, and a the California Apartment Association.

Organizations associated with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA, have donated about $35,000 in total. Construction and General Laborers Local 304, a local chapter of the union representing which represents over 4,000 workers, donated $20,000.

Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition, which represents 70,000 LiUNA members in Arizona, California, Hawaii and New Mexico, donated $15,000.

William ‘Bill’ Crotinger and the East Oakland-based company Argent Materials have donated $26,000. Crotinger is the president and founder of Argent, a concrete and asphalt recycling yard. Argent’s website says it is an eco-friendly company that diverts materials from landfills. In 2018, Argent paid the EPA $27,000 under a settlement for committing Clean Water Act violations.

Michael Morgan of Hayward, owner of We Are Hemp, a marijuana dispensary in Ashland, has donated $21,500.

Alameda County District 1 Supervisor David Haubert has donated $21,250 from his 2024 reelection campaign. He’s running unopposed for the District 1 seat.

SEIU 1021which represents over 60,000 workers in local governments, non-profit agencies, healthcare programs, and schools in Northern California, has donated $20,000.

UA Local 342, which represents around 4,000 pipe trades industry workers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, donated $20,000.

The union representing the county’s deputy sheriffs, Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Alameda County, has donated $17,000.

Becton Healthcare Resources and its managers have donated $14,625. Becton’s mission statement says it provides “behavioral health management services to organizations and groups that serve the serious and persistent mentally ill population.”

Jennifer Esteen’s top campaign contributors:

Mary Quinn Delaney of Piedmont, founder of Akonadi Foundation, has donated $20,000. Akonadi Foundation gives grants to nonprofit organizations, especially focusing on racial justice organizing,

Bridget Galli of Castro Valley has donated $7,000. Galli is a yoga instructor and a co-owner of Castro Valley Yoga.

Rachel Gelman of Oakland has donated $5,000. Gelman is an activist who has vowed to redistribute her inherited wealth to working class, Indigenous and Black communities.

California Worker Families Party has donated $5,000. The organization’s website describes itself as a “grassroots party for the multiracial working class.”

David Stern of Albany has donated $5,000. Stern is a retired UC Berkeley Professor of Education.

Oakland Rising Committee—a collaborative of racial, economic, and environmental justice organizations—has donated about $3,050.

Fredeke Von Bothmer-Goodyear, an unemployed resident of San Francisco, has donated $2,600.

Robert Britton of Castro Valley has donated $2,500. Britton is retired and worked in the labor movement for decades.

Progressive Era PAC has donated about $2,400. Its mission statement says it “exists to elect governing majorities of leaders in California committed to building a progressive era for people of color.”

East Bay Stonewall Democrats Club has donated $2,250. The club was founded in 1982 to give voice to the East Bay LGBTQIA+ communities.

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