Racial Trauma
Readings:
- “The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health,” American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement (August 2019)
- How Racism Harms Children (9/14/19) (discussing AAP Policy Statement above)
- “Healing the Hidden Wounds of Racial Trauma” by Dr. Kenneth Hardy
- “How Racism Can Affect Child Development” produced by Harvard University Center on the Developing Child
- Why Focus on Racial Trauma? Research brief from Massachusetts Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative
- “Systems of Trauma: Racial Trauma” brief by Meghan Resler, MSW, Senior Research Associate Family & Children’s Trust Fund of Virginia
- “Shutting Down the Trauma to Prison Pipeline: Early, Appropriate Care for Child-Welfare Involved Youth” produced by Citizens for Juvenile Justice
Webinars and Other Resources:
Implicit Bias
Readings:
- “Designed to Fail: Implicit Bias in Our Nation’s Juvenile Courts” by Sean Darling-Hammond
- “Race, Paternalism and the Right to Counsel” by Kristin Henning
- “Defense Attorney Resistance” by Robin Walker Sterling
- “The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural Competence in Lawyers” by Susan Bryant
- “Implicitly Unjust: How Defenders Can Affect Systemic Racist Assumptions” by Jonathan A. Rapping
- “Implicit Racial Bias in Public Defender Triage” by L. Song Richardson and Philip Atiba Goff
- “Implicit Bias in the Courtroom” by Jerry Kang et al.
Webinars and Other Resources:
- Project Implicit: Harvard Implicit Bias Association Tests
- ABA Implicit Bias Toolkit and Videos, (includes video on implicit bias and public defenders)
- Sean Darling Hammond PowerPoint Presentation on Implicit Bias at MCLE Delinquency and Child Welfare Conference (12/11/20)
Racial Justice and the Family Regulation System
NACC Race Equity Hub (developed to help professionals combat the perpetuation of racism, bias, poverty, and the trauma of family separation against children and families of color.)
Readings:
- Time Magazine, “Black Families Are Outraged About Family Separation Within the U.S. It’s Time to Listen to Them” (3/17/21)
- Dorothy Roberts & Lisa Sangoi, Black Families Matter: How the Child Welfare System Punishes Poor Families of Color (3/26/18)
- White Privilege in Child Welfare – What Racism Looks Like (6/20/20)
- Robert Latham, A Starter Reading List on How Child Welfare Policies Harm Black People, Families and Communities
- Shriver Center on Poverty Law Child Welfare Reading List
- Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare by Dorothy Roberts
- Taking Children: A History of American Terror by Laura Briggs
- Best Interests: How Child Welfare Serves as a Tool of White Supremacy (Political Research Associates, November 2019, (discussing the history of the child welfare system and its roots in white supremacy)
- How the Foster System Has Become Ground Zero for the US Drug War
- New York Times, Foster Care as Punishment, The New Reality of “Jane Crow” (7/21/17)
- “Representing Children, Representing What?: Critical Reflections on Lawyering for Children by Annette Ruth Appell
- “What Can the Child Welfare System Learn in the Wake of the Floyd Decision?: A Comparison of Stop-And-Frisk Policing and Child Welfare Investigations by Michelle Burrell
- “Racial Bias in American Foster Care: The National Debate” by Tanya A. Cooper
- “Family Defense in the Age of Black Lives Matter” by Erin Cloud, Rebecca Oyama, and Lauren Teichner
- “When Child Welfare Cases Police Women in their Homes” by Kendra Hurley
- “Abolishing Policing Also Means Abolishing Family Regulation” by Dorothy Roberts
- “The Sad Omission of Child Welfare from Mainstream Discussion on Race” by T. Coles, Z. Akbar, E. Ketteringham & L. Shapiro
- “Prison, Foster Care, and the Systemic Punishment of Black Mothers” by Dorothy E. Roberts
- Let’s Root Out Racism in Child Welfare, Too by Martin Guggenheim
- “Entangled Roots: The Role of Race in Policies that Separate Families” report by Elisa Minoff of Center for the Study of Social Policy
- However Kindly Intentioned: Structural Racism and Volunteer CASA Programs by Amy Mulzer and Tara Urs
Webinars and Other Resources:
- Podcast Episode 59: What Did Child Welfare Learn from 2020 – upEnding Systemic Racism (Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast series, hosted by the US Children’s Bureau)
- Family Surveillance: A Future Without Foster Care (U Penn Law School, with Dorothy Roberts, part of the 2/5/21 full day Sparer Symposium)
- Webinar: Building Hope and Ending Systemic Racism and Inequitable Treatment of Children and Families of Color (sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, with Casey Family Services)
- The Case for Race Blind Removals, TED Talk with Dr. Jessica Pryce
- 2-Part Webinar: Manifestation of White Supremacy (ABA Center for Children and the Law)
- NACC Webinar: Don’t Minimize the Moment: Truth, Reparatory Justice, and Healing for Black Families Who are Descendants of Captive and Enslaved Africans in the U.S. and Session Materials
- Two Day Convening: upENDing the Child Welfare System: the Road to Abolition (October 2020)
Data Resources
- DCF Annual Report 2020
- “Why are Latinos So Overrepresented in the State’s Child Welfare System,” Commonwealth Magazine (2/22/21)
- Massachusetts Appleseed: “Families Torn Apart: Language Based Discrimination at the Massachusetts DCF” (January 2021)
- Massachusetts Juvenile Justice System: Data and Outcomes for Youth
- “Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Criminal System” report by Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School (2020)
- “Race and Poverty Bias in the Child Welfare System: Strategies for Child Welfare Practitioners” by Krista Ellis, ABA Center on Children and the Law
- “Racial Disproportionality and Disparity in Child Welfare” issue brief by US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau
Organizations Working to Dismantle and/or Reimagine the Family Regulation System
- upEnd Movement: A joint initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Policy and University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, working to implement anti-racist policies and practices that safely keep children with their families and in their communities. Learn more here: https://upendmovement.org/.
- Movement for Family Power: Started by two former family defense lawyers, the Movement for Family Power works to end the foster system’s policing and punishment of families and to create a world where the dignity and integrity of all families is valued and supported. Learn more here: https://www.movementforfamilypower.org/.
- Institute for Families: Hosted a three part series on the Unlearning of Child Welfare to convene diverse stakeholders to create a child and family well being system and reduce reliance on foster care. Watch the webinar series and learn more here: https://instituteforfamily.org/unlearning-child-welfare/.
- Shriver Center on Poverty Law: Working to elevate the concerns and welfare of parents and families and advocating for policies that strengthen families and end the harmful removal of children from their homes. Learn more here: https://www.povertylaw.org/issue/strong-communities/foster-system/.
- U.S. Children’s Bureau: Pushing a vision of “child welfare” that provides support to families and reduces reliance on foster care. For more information read the articles in the CB Express August/September Newsletter Call to Action to Reform Child Welfare.
Mental Health and Substance-Related Care Resources for People and Communities of Color
- Live Another Day – Live Another Day was founded with the purpose of providing equal access to life-saving resources. They offer dozens of resources for finding help for mental health and substance use.
- Support for BIPOC Parents – An extensive resource list curated for BIPOC parents. This guide was put together by the experts at Louisville Addiction Center
- Resources for AAPI Students – 28 mental health and substance use resources for Asian American students, carefully curated by experts at Lexington Addiction Center
- A Guide for Addressing the Loneliness Epidemic – In May, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a special report on the public health crisis of loneliness in America. The organization T.R.U.E Addiction and Behavioral Health has put together this extensive guide with dozens of mental health and substance use resources that can help.