Activism

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.

Published

2 years ago

May 9, 2022

Oakland Post

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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WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

50 mins ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

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Activism

Oakland’s ‘Green the Church,’ Others, Host a Climate Revival

On April 20, Oakland’s Green The Church California (GTC) and the Center For Food, Faith and Justice will celebrate Earth Day and present a Climate Revival event titled “Growing Healthy Communities From Soil To The Soul” at McGee Avenue Baptist Church at 1640 Stuart St, Berkeley, CA. The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

Published

4 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

The revival will take place at McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley on April 20. Courtesy image.

Growing Healthy Communities from Soil to the Soul in Berkeley

By Y’Anad Burrell

The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

The keynote speaker is Rev. Danté R. Quick, PhD, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. Quick is well known in the Bay Area, having served for more than 10 years as pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Vallejo, CA.

Green The Church, founded in 2010 by Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr., and headquartered in Oakland, helps galvanize Black churches and their local communities and leaders to address issues critical to populations historically disengaged from conversations around pollution and health, climate change, and sustainability and energy efficiency.

The organization collaborates with major environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, and is committed to “creation justice”—care and justice for God’s people and the planet—and building the Beloved Community.

Environmental justice has long been a pressing concern for communities of color who bear the brunt of pollution and ecological degradation. Climate change exacerbates these issues, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities. Recognizing this urgency, Black churches across the country are taking action.

With deep roots in the African American community and its commitment to social justice, the Black Church has become an essential advocate for sustainable practices and policies.

Over the past 14 years, in a powerful collaboration with significant environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, GTC has created a cadre of Black churches engaging in the environmental justice, climate, and sustainability movement.

GTC presently works with more than 1,000 pastors and congregations across the U.S., and groups in the Bahamas, Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK, showing that we can make a difference together.

The partnership between environmental justice advocates and the Black Church extends beyond individual congregations. Green The Church provides resources and support for faith communities seeking to address climate change and promote environmental justice.

Through collaboration, initiatives such as energy efficiency programs, solar installations, and environmental education have been implemented in Black churches nationwide. These efforts reduce the carbon footprint and save money on energy bills, benefiting the congregations and their communities.

The involvement of the Black Church in the fight against climate change is not just a participation, it’s a powerful message that galvanizes action across communities.

By integrating environmental justice into their ministry, Black churches are demonstrating that addressing climate change is not only a matter of science but also of social and moral responsibility, inspiring change at a grassroots level.

For more information, go to: www.greenthechurch.org.