Stay tuned for 2026 updates •

Stay tuned for 2026 updates •

We declare June 2026 the second annual

Stolen Children’s Month.

THE CAMPAIGN

Stolen Children’s Month is a narrative campaign that builds political will to end state-sanctioned kidnapping of children and cultivates communities of care for impacted families to heal and repair.

This month honors children stolen by:

  • Family Policing and Foster "Care"

  • The ICE Detention Machine

  • Youth Incarceration

  • Private Adoption Industries

  • Forced Treatment Facilities

OUR VISION

Stolen Children’s Month calls for the abolition of all systems that steal children and separate families.

We envision a world where children remain rooted in the love, care, and cultures of their families and communities; and where families harmed by state violence have access to the material and relational resources needed to heal and repair.

WHAT WE DO

We build narrative power through collective healing, storytelling, and local organizing. Every June, during Stolen Children’s Month, impacted leaders across the globe gather to organize vigils for stolen children, letter writing gatherings, storytelling projects, and healing circles.

In 2025, nearly 20 communities across the globe—in the United States, Canada, Colombia, and England—held vigils to honor children stolen from their families.

OUR HISTORY

Our organizing and advocacy emerges from the fight against family separation at the hands of the family policing (“child welfare”) system and the multi-billion dollar adoption industry. But we know our struggles are bound together with children who have been stolen from family by myriad institutions throughout history.

From orphan trains, to chattel slavery, to the genocide of Indigenous people, family separation has long been wielded as a weapon to control, punish, and disappear Black, immigrant, and Indigenous children. This violent history continues today, as millions of children are stolen from their families by the family policing, adoption, youth incarceration, and ICE detention and deportation systems.

For generations, the stories of stolen children have been erased from dominant narratives. The United States systematically and willfully ignores the life-long trauma of children torn from their homes and the deep, unhealed grief of parents forced to live without their children. Meanwhile, the very systems that tear our families apart are celebrated. Each year, the United States celebrates holidays like National Adoption Month which romanticize, whitewash, and normalize the destruction of families.

We, stolen children and our families, must reclaim our narrative.

WHO WE ARE

Ashley Albert, Founder of Stolen Children’s Month

Ashley De Anna Albert is a visionary mother, abolitionist, and founder of Stolen Children’s Month. Through Stolen Children’s Month, Ashley seeks to reclaim what has been stolen from us: our children, our joy, our lineage, and our rights to raise our babies in peace. 

Ashley’s story is one of survival, power, and reclamation. When she was just six months old, Ashley’s father was stolen from her, a loss which profoundly shaped her childhood. As a child, Ashley was impacted by the foster system, youth incarceration, mental health struggles, and domestic violence. The harms of family separation followed Ashley into adulthood, when she was forced to endure incarceration and the foster system as a parent. She has since fought tirelessly to be reunified with her children. This is why Ashley holds close the stories of every child and parent who’s been erased, misunderstood, or discarded.

Through her lived experience, Ashley has emerged as a fierce movement leader, advocate, and organizer. Ashley is the Founder of Ascending Healing and Justice, a transformative justice practice grounded in truth-telling and advocacy, and a Storyteller in Residence with Movement for Family Power. Her work centers abolition, reproductive justice, and deep spiritual healing. She is also a national speaker, curriculum developer, and trainer—guiding systems-impacted communities toward liberation.

Ashley carries the memory of her sister, Angel, who passed too soon, but whose love and light continue to guide her purpose. Every day, Ashley leads with love, rage, and a fierce commitment to memory. Her life’s work is a refusal to be forgotten—and a promise that no one else will be either.

Steering Committee

  • Amanda Wallace

    Founder, Operation Stop CPS

  • Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sánchez

    Co-Founder, We Are Holding This; Founding Member, Reproductive Justice in Adoption (RJiA); Member, Reimagine Child Safety Bay Area and Beyond (RCSBAB); Member, Adopted, Fostered, Trafficked Abolitionists (AFTA)

  • jasmine Sankofa

    Executive Director, Movement for Family Power

  • Josie Pickens

    Program Director, upEND Movement

  • Keshia Adeniyi-Dorsey

    CEO + Principal Attorney, K.Adeniyi Law

  • Sarah Duggan

    Manager of Communications, Movement for Family Power

  • Tanesha Grant

    Executive Director, Parents Supporting Parents NY

  • Tina Rios

    Indigenous Mother with lived experience in DV and Family Policing; Lived Expert and Community Consultant, Los Angeles and California; Core Leader, Reimagine Child Safety Coalition - Los Angeles; CEO, A Child’s Dream Altadena

  • Tamara Robertson

    Healer-in-Residence, Movement for Family Power

  • Zaira Campos

    Founder, Adoptees Crossing Lines; Founder, Liberated Media Hub