This event is hosted by Positive Women’s Network.

Join PWN-USA for a policy advocacy training series launching this June! We will be hosting monthly trainings focused on policy advocacy skills-building. The trainings will range in topics from providing an overview on how government processes work to how you to organize effectively on your issue to key frameworks for advocacy.

We know that our members are brilliant and have lived expertise that should guide our strategies - ensuring policies will have better outcomes for those most directly impacted. Let’s build power and skill-build together!

7/24/25: What the Hellscape? Understanding Federal Policy Advocacy in this Moment
8/21/25: Key Frameworks in Advocacy: Racial Justice & Black Liberation
8/28/25: Key Frameworks in Advocacy: Gender Justice & Trans Liberation
9/25/25: How to Organize Effectively
10/23/25: How to Research Targets and Move a Policy Priority
11/20/25: Getting Ready for Legislative Session: Understanding Calendars, Processes, and Timelines
01/22/26: Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV (MIPA) and Coalition 101
2/19/26: Conducting Effective Meetings with Decision Makers
3/19/26: Storytelling for Advocacy
4/16/26: Ending HIV Criminalization using Abolitionist Frameworks in Advocacy

This event is hosted by Mandated Reporters Against Mandated Reporting.

Mandated Reporters Against Mandated Reporting is excited to invite you to our New York City book launch of How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action. Join us to discuss efforts to reduce mandated reporting, from clinical to legislative change!

Where? The People’s Forum / 320 West 37th Street / New York City, NY 10018

When? Thursday, January 15th, 2026 at 6:30pm-8pm

RSVP: bit.ly/MR-book

For nearly 6 years, Mandated Reporters Against Mandated Reporters has been a peer support and organizing space for social workers, social service and mental health workers, and others who are mandated by law to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect to “child protective” services–but who believe this practice does more harm than good. 

This new book includes a chapter from our co-founders urging people in helping professions to resist this and all other practices that criminalize families–especially Black families, whom the NYC Administration for Children’s Services investigates at a rate 7 times higher than white families.

Our book launch will be joined by the Network to Advance Abolition in Social Work (NAASW), the NY Mandated Reporting Working Group, and Cafe Con Libros who will be selling copies of the book! 

This event is hosted by the New York Informed Consent Coalition.

To kick off the 2026 session, join the Informed Consent Coalition’s Advocacy Day for the Maternal Health, Dignity, and Consent Act (A.860 / S.845) – Monday, January 12 in Albany!

This bill ensures that medical providers obtain informed consent before drug testing and screening pregnant/postpartum people and their newborns. Take action with us during a powerful day of advocacy, featuring a rally, press conference, and meetings with lawmakers, to defend bodily autonomy and demand an end to the harmful medical practices of non-consensual drug testing/screening. We will start this session off strong, building on the incredible momentum from last year.

Transportation to Albany and lunch will be provided.

This event is hosted by Mama Bees Housing Community.

Join us for the Mama Bees Virtual Community Teach-In Series on Abundance Planning. A 2-part series, where we will explore ancestral wisdom, share rituals of care, cultural community values, and practices that can sustain our community-led/grassroots initiatives, and uplift reproductive and economic justice.

This series is a cornerstone of our commitment to building a self-sustaining community where our values, integrity, community and family's well-being will always come first. Learn from the wisdom and collective experiences of those most impacted by birth and economic justice issues.

We invite you to connect, engage, and contribute to our financial liberation efforts that uplift and empower women and/self-identifying femmes and caregivers and/birthing people. 

This event is hosted by Family Matters 1st & Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.

💬 Community Talks: Know Your Rights with DCF
📅 Oct 30, Nov 13, Dec 4, Dec 18 | 7–8 PM
📍 Zoom ID: 916 3837 6036

Family Matters 1st and the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau are hosting a series of virtual talks for parents, families, and advocates impacted by the child welfare system what we call “the Family Police.”

Come share your story, connect with others, and learn about your rights with DCF. We’re stronger together. 💜

✉️ Questions? Email hlabfamdefense@lists.law.harvard.edu

This event is hosted by Movement for Family Power and the Collaborative.

Are you fighting for families in your community and interested in growing and sustaining your impact? 

Sowing Seeds is BACK this Fall in the form of drop-in office hours with Lauren Burke from the Collaborative.

These sessions are dedicated time for you to work in community, while getting real-time advice, access to resources, and strategic support with project management, budget & finances, and grants & fundraising. 

While this is not a space for legal support on individual cases, Lauren can look over grants, help discuss HR issues, give mini training, and provide other operational support.

We will meet on Zoom from 11AM-1PM ET every Thursday between October 23-December 18th (except for Thanksgiving week). No long-term commitment is required–just sign up and drop in as needed. 

These sessions are designed to be flexible, collaborative, and responsive to what movement builders need.

This event is hosted by Mama Bees Housing Community.

Join us for the Mama Bees Virtual Community Teach-In Series on Abundance Planning. A 2-part series, where we will explore ancestral wisdom, share rituals of care, cultural community values, and practices that can sustain our community-led/grassroots initiatives, and uplift reproductive and economic justice.

This series is a cornerstone of our commitment to building a self-sustaining community where our values, integrity, community and family's well-being will always come first. Learn from the wisdom and collective experiences of those most impacted by birth and economic justice issues.

We invite you to connect, engage, and contribute to our financial liberation efforts that uplift and empower women and/self-identifying femmes and caregivers and/birthing people. 

This event is hosted by Movement for Family Power and the Collaborative.

Are you fighting for families in your community and interested in growing and sustaining your impact? 

Sowing Seeds is BACK this Fall in the form of drop-in office hours with Lauren Burke from the Collaborative.

These sessions are dedicated time for you to work in community, while getting real-time advice, access to resources, and strategic support with project management, budget & finances, and grants & fundraising. 

While this is not a space for legal support on individual cases, Lauren can look over grants, help discuss HR issues, give mini training, and provide other operational support.

We will meet on Zoom from 11AM-1PM ET every Thursday between October 23-December 18th (except for Thanksgiving week). No long-term commitment is required–just sign up and drop in as needed. 

These sessions are designed to be flexible, collaborative, and responsive to what movement builders need.

These virtual gatherings are a welcoming space for parents, caregivers, former foster youth, and allies to share experiences, build connection, and support each other on the path toward family reunification and healing.

Write to us at reimaginechildsafetyparents@gmail.com to RSVP.

This event series is hosted by Black Families Love & Unite.

We are excited to offer this Somatic Wellness Workshop to families that have been impacted by the child welfare system as a way for us to explore what it means to deeply care for our bodies.

Options throughout this practice will be offered for those standing, sitting, and lying down. Please center your care & access needs during this session - think of whatever you need to feel cozy!

If it is accessible to you, you might consider having a cup of tea, some incense, candles, or any little plant or flower nearby during the practice.

Cost: FREE

First Saturday of the month / All workshops will take place on Zoom.

This event is hosted by the Justice Beyond Punishment Collaborative (JBPC).

Join us to feel the joy of community, share a meal, and real talk about the power of punishment at a moment in which punishment is central to governance in our country.

Presented by the Justice Beyond Punishment Collaborative (JBPC), Challenging the Politics of Punishment: Building Toward Non-Carceral Safety, Healing, and Justice is an interactive workshop on implementing and integrating our series of messaging tools - including a zine, a podcast, and a messaging guide - in the face of heightened state violence. Workshop participants will discuss how punishment paradigms impact their organizing and activism - specifically in this moment of heightened state violence - and to ideate & put into practice ways that JBPC messaging tools can make their work easier and more effective.

December 5, 2025 | 6-8pm

The People's Forum, 320 W 37th St, Manhattan

Questions? Please contact Cameron at camron916@gmail.com.

This event is hosted by Family Matters 1st & Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.

💬 Community Talks: Know Your Rights with DCF
📅 Oct 30, Nov 13, Dec 4, Dec 18 | 7–8 PM
📍 Zoom ID: 916 3837 6036

Family Matters 1st and the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau are hosting a series of virtual talks for parents, families, and advocates impacted by the child welfare system what we call “the Family Police.”

Come share your story, connect with others, and learn about your rights with DCF. We’re stronger together. 💜

✉️ Questions? Email hlabfamdefense@lists.law.harvard.edu

This event is hosted by Movement for Family Power and the Collaborative.

Are you fighting for families in your community and interested in growing and sustaining your impact? 

Sowing Seeds is BACK this Fall in the form of drop-in office hours with Lauren Burke from the Collaborative.

These sessions are dedicated time for you to work in community, while getting real-time advice, access to resources, and strategic support with project management, budget & finances, and grants & fundraising. 

While this is not a space for legal support on individual cases, Lauren can look over grants, help discuss HR issues, give mini training, and provide other operational support.

We will meet on Zoom from 11AM-1PM ET every Thursday between October 23-December 18th (except for Thanksgiving week). No long-term commitment is required–just sign up and drop in as needed. 

These sessions are designed to be flexible, collaborative, and responsive to what movement builders need.

This event is hosted by Haymarket Books.

Join us for a virtual book launch of How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action, a much-needed intervention arguing that the systems that claim to protect children make them—and our communities—less safe.

Based on decades of experience, organizing, and research, How to End Family Policing argues that the child welfare system cannot build genuine safety. In fact, rather than the misleading language of "child welfare," many scholars and activists describe these institutions as "family policing." Drawing on abolitionist principals, this much-needed intervention shows that no kinship network benefits from investigation, surveillance, policing, or forced separation. Contributors include community organizers, parents, civil rights attorneys, scholars, social workers, and survivors of family policing.

Dorothy Roberts, Andrea Ritchie, and Erin Miles Cloud will discuss the historical context of the family policing system and, vitally, how organizers have strategized against it.

Order a copy of How to End Family Policing here.

This event is hosted by Wildseed Wellness Coop.

Who: This webinar is for people navigating wellness during the holiday season. Whether you are dealing with issues of loneliness or concerned about safely traveling to visit loved ones while maintaining healthy boundaries and avoiding unnecessary fights. 

What: This webinar will focus on concrete skills and practice to help people maintain a felt sense of safety, create plans for supporting wellness and steps to take to be secure while traveling (especially internationally). 

Why: The holiday is often a difficult time for people, whether you are with loved ones or spending a quiet season alone. Many of us struggle to deal with loneliness, maintaining healthy communication and boundaries and the stress of planning for travel. With ICE occupations and increasingly economic uncertainty the holiday are more complicated and potentially fraught than ever. This is the perfect time to spend thinking intentionally about safety, wellness and security. 

Mothers and others grappling with SNAP cuts are organizing this event so that others impacted and those defending our families and communities can come together to get the facts, support each other and share strategies for what we can do together. 144,000 in PA will lose SNAP due to work requirements. No Cuts To SNAP - We Are Already Working!

Get latest on SNAP cuts & what can be done
⏰SNAP Defense Training with Community Legal Services⏰

📆Friday November 21, 12-3pm

📍Crossroads Women’s Center, 5011 Wayne Ave Phila 19144

12-1pm Lunch & Video

1-2pm Get the facts from CLS

2-3pm Strategize

Crossroads Kitchen, Global Women’s Strike, Women Of Color/GWS
Email: philly@allwomencount.net
Website: https://wccww.wordpress.com
215-848-1120

This event is hosted by Positive Women’s Network.

Join PWN-USA for a policy advocacy training series launching this June! We will be hosting monthly trainings focused on policy advocacy skills-building. The trainings will range in topics from providing an overview on how government processes work to how you to organize effectively on your issue to key frameworks for advocacy.

We know that our members are brilliant and have lived expertise that should guide our strategies - ensuring policies will have better outcomes for those most directly impacted. Let’s build power and skill-build together!

7/24/25: What the Hellscape? Understanding Federal Policy Advocacy in this Moment
8/21/25: Key Frameworks in Advocacy: Racial Justice & Black Liberation
8/28/25: Key Frameworks in Advocacy: Gender Justice & Trans Liberation
9/25/25: How to Organize Effectively
10/23/25: How to Research Targets and Move a Policy Priority
11/20/25: Getting Ready for Legislative Session: Understanding Calendars, Processes, and Timelines
01/22/26: Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV (MIPA) and Coalition 101
2/19/26: Conducting Effective Meetings with Decision Makers
3/19/26: Storytelling for Advocacy
4/16/26: Ending HIV Criminalization using Abolitionist Frameworks in Advocacy

This event is hosted by Black Mamas Matter.

On November 19th, this session led by Birthmark Doula Collective's Victoria Williams, uncovers the hidden dangers of toxic chemicals found in personal care products and their impact on maternal and perinatal health. Participants will explore how environmental and reproductive justice intersect with consumer rights, gaining tools to educate communities, advocate for safer policies, and protect maternal and child health. This session also includes a follow-up technical assistance session in early December.

Objectives:

• Identify common toxic chemicals and environmental hazards found in personal care products, particularly those disproportionately marketed to and used within BIPOC communities.

• Explain how exposure to reprotoxins and harmful substances impacts perinatal and maternal health outcomes.

• Examine the intersection of environmental justice, reproductive justice, and consumer rights in addressing toxic exposures. 

• Apply knowledge of regulatory policies, advocacy strategies, and community-based solutions to protect maternal and child health.

• Develop practical approaches to educating clients, patients, and communities on safe product choices and the "Right to Know." 

Featured with registration:

• 2-hour course

• 1-hour technical assistance session

• Continuing Education Units

Price: 20

This event is hosted by Black Mamas Matter.

On November 18th, this interactive session will center birthworkers as key advocates in the fight for environmental and reproductive justice. Through presentations, discussions, and community reflection, Woven's Zainab Jah and Nurturely's Aver Yakubu, will explore the intersections of climate change, maternal health, and birthwork. Featured topics include extreme heat education, disaster planning with doulas, and coalition-based initiatives like EnviroNatal Week that uplift community-driven climate justice. This session also includes a follow-up technical assistance session December 4th. 

Objectives:

• Identify the unique role of birthworkers in advancing environmental and reproductive justice in their communities. 

• Discuss strategies to uplift and support birthworkers as climate health advocates and first responders during environmental crises. 

• Explore current models, tools, and initiatives integrating climate preparedness and response into birthwork. 

Featured with registration:

• 2-hour course

• 1-hour technical assistance session

• Continuing Education Units

Price: 20

This event is hosted by Black Mamas Matter.

On November 17th, Jade Sasser from University of CA, Riverside, will address the ways climate change impacts maternal mental health, from pre-pregnancy through postpartum. Presenting the current research and policy landscape, along with addressing the role of health workers in addressing this crucial challenge. 

Objectives:

• Identify the ways increased wildfires, heat events, storms, and other extreme weather phenomena impact maternal mental health

• Examine the climate-focused policies and programs designed to support mental health among mothers and those interested in becoming pregnant

• Analyze the ways race and class shape differential maternal mental health experiences among climate-impacted communities

Featured with registration:

• 2-hour course

• Continuing Education Units

Price: 15

This event is hosted by Family Matters 1st & Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.

💬 Community Talks: Know Your Rights with DCF
📅 Oct 30, Nov 13, Dec 4, Dec 18 | 7–8 PM
📍 Zoom ID: 916 3837 6036

Family Matters 1st and the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau are hosting a series of virtual talks for parents, families, and advocates impacted by the child welfare system what we call “the Family Police.”

Come share your story, connect with others, and learn about your rights with DCF. We’re stronger together. 💜

✉️ Questions? Email hlabfamdefense@lists.law.harvard.edu

This event is hosted by We Are Revolutionary, Capital District Latinos (CDL) and the Mandated Reporting Work Group (MRWG).

Across the Capital Region, families are uniting to confront a system that criminalizes poverty, punishes trauma, and calls it “protection.” The Family Policing Town Hall + Teach-In Series is a collective effort to expose the harm caused by the family regulation system and to build a new vision of care rooted in healing, safety, and shared power.

Led by We Are Revolutionary and partners across the Capital District, this series dives deep into the intersections of housing instability, mental health, education, incarceration, and youth criminalization, revealing how each system feeds into state control and family separation. Together, we’re organizing toward a family first future, one where communities, not courts, decide how families are supported and loved.

Our upcoming event, hosted with Capital District Latinos (CDL) and the Mandated Reporting Work Group (MRWG), focuses on mandated reporting what it is, what really happens after a report, and how we can reduce harm while protecting children and families. This is more than a conversation, it’s part of a region-wide strategy to end the criminalization of families and strengthen community care networks that make state intervention unnecessary.

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025

3:30–5:30 PM

Cultural Empowerment & Community Engagement Center -160 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12206

You’ll leave with practical tools to understand your rights, spot patterns of harm, and take action to keep families together. We’re calling on parents, youth, educators, healers, organizers, and allies across the Capital Region to join us in this movement for truth and transformation.

Together, we’re not just ending family policing, we’re reimagining what safety looks like when it’s led by love, not fear.

This event is hosted by Press On.

This workshop will teach participants the basic components of an effective pitch, how to find outlets to pitch, how to navigate the writing & editing process when your pitch is accepted, and how to promote your piece once it’s published. Participants will also have space to workshop pitch ideas.

Our facilitator: KB Brookins (they/them), writer, educator, cultural worker & award-winning author of Pretty: A Memoir.

Objectives

• Learn the basics of how to pitch a magazine with a creative nonfiction (i.e., personal essay, op-ed) idea

• Learn what to expect in a writer-editor relationship

• Gain feedback on a pitch idea from the facilitator

This event is hosted by Movement for Family Power and the Collaborative.

Are you fighting for families in your community and interested in growing and sustaining your impact? 

Sowing Seeds is BACK this Fall in the form of drop-in office hours with Lauren Burke from the Collaborative.

These sessions are dedicated time for you to work in community, while getting real-time advice, access to resources, and strategic support with project management, budget & finances, and grants & fundraising. 

While this is not a space for legal support on individual cases, Lauren can look over grants, help discuss HR issues, give mini training, and provide other operational support.

We will meet on Zoom from 11AM-1PM ET every Thursday between October 23-December 18th (except for Thanksgiving week). No long-term commitment is required–just sign up and drop in as needed. 

These sessions are designed to be flexible, collaborative, and responsive to what movement builders need.

This event is hosted by Black Mamas Matter.

On November 12th, this session will build on the capacity of birth workers and health professionals to understand and address the disproportionate impact of reproductive toxins on maternal, reproductive, and neonatal health. Young, Gifted and Green’s founder, LaTricea D. Adams will explore how environmental and reproductive justice intersect with birth work, and provide you with tools to advocate for healthier pregnancies and birth outcomes in Black communities. 

• Participants will be able to define reproductive toxins and identify common sources of exposure in Black communities.

• Participants will be able to explain the pathways through which reproductive toxins impact reproductive health, maternal health, and neonatal health, with specific attention to disparities affecting Black individuals.

• Participants will be able to describe the intersection of environmental racism and reproductive health disparities.

• Participants will be able to identify strategies for reducing exposure to reproductive toxins at the individual, family, and community levels.

• Participants will be able to confidently communicate information about reproductive toxins to clients (community members) and advocate for policies that promote environmental and reproductive justice.

Featured with registration:

• 2-hour course

• Continuing Education Units

Price: 15

This event is hosted by New York City Family Policy Project. 

There has been a dramatic drop in family policing investigations of mamas with newborns for alleged drug use in New York City. This is a clear reflection of the decades of work by impacted mamas and the advocacy of the New York Informed Consent Coalition:

• NYC family policing investigations of mamas with newborns for alleged drug use dropped almost 80% between 2020 and 2024. 

• This drop was even more stark for Black mamas with newborns, for whom investigations for alleged drug use fell nearly 90% between 2017 and 2024. 

• At the same time, the NYC foster system snatched 30% fewer newborns and infants.  

• There is no evidence that newborns and infants are less safe because of reduced family separations.

This data comes from a new brief by the New York City Family Policy Project. 

This Wednesday (November 12) at 2PM, Nora at New York City Family Policy Project will host an informal chat so you can feel comfortable using this data. Miriam Mack (Movement for Family Power) and Jesse McGleughlin (Bronx Defenders) will join to share more about the advocacy behind these numbers! 

>> RSVP Here

These virtual gatherings are a welcoming space for parents, caregivers, former foster youth, and allies to share experiences, build connection, and support each other on the path toward family reunification and healing.

Write to us at reimaginechildsafetyparents@gmail.com to RSVP.

This event is hosted by Black Mamas Matter.

On November 10th, Black women and birthing people are often overexposed to pollution and under protected from environmental harm. This session led by BWW-LA's Tianna Shaw Wakeman, explores how environmental racism and reproductive justice intersect. This session also includes a follow-up technical assistance session December 2nd. 

Objectives:

• Understand the intersections between environmental and reproductive justice.

• Understand the movement histories for EJ and RJ.

• Gain a high level understanding of historical and present day examples of environmental racism
  and reproductive injustice.

• Provide foundation knowledge for themes that will arise throughout this e-learning series.

• Walk away with lessons to share with clients, community, colleagues, and family

Featured with registration:

• 2-hour course

• 1-hour technical assistance session

• Continuing Education Units

Price: 20

This event is hosted by Black Mamas Matter.

On November 7th, Angela D. Aina’s session will establish a foundational understanding of Black Maternal Health Practice as a distinctive branch of maternal and child health work. This practice recognizes how people of African descent have long understood childbearing, maternity care, and reproductive health as inseparable from our connection to the land, water, air, food, and the natural and spiritual world—our ecosystem. Join us as we kick off BMMA’s 2025 Fall Perinatal Learning Series and ground together in holistic, justice-centered care. 

This session does not include a technical assistance session.

Objectives:

• Describe Black Maternal Health Practice as a distinctive approach that integrates multiple conceptual frameworks with cultural practices and ecological knowledge. 

• Explain how environmental racism and structural oppression are interconnected with maternal and infant health disparities, and why solutions must simultaneously address both environmental conditions and honor traditional healing practices. 

• Recognize how the topics throughout this Fall 2025 Perinatal Learning Series, such as reproductive toxins, climate and mental health, practitioner preparedness, and personal care products, are essential competencies in Black Maternal Health. 

Featured with registration:

• 45-minute course

Price: 10