Support the Movement
Build a society where children and families have everything they need to thrive in their homes and communities.
upEND is a national movement housed at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work as an initiative that is funded entirely through grants and donations. We rely on the generosity of organizations and individual donors to support and grow this movement.
Your support shifts negative popular narratives about Black, Indigenous, and Latine families.
We create free resources and events to educate community leaders and influence policy and public discourse. Our article “It is not a broken system, it is a system that needs to be broken: the upEND movement to abolish the child welfare system” is the most-read article of all time in the Journal of Public Child Welfare and has been cited over 55 times in other journals.
Since our launch in 2020, we’ve been able to expand our reach through community building online. Our third annual convening reached over 2,600 people and featured keynote speakers Angela Davis and Mariame Kaba, connecting the movement to end family policing to the broader abolition movement.
What we’re proposing—ending the reach and harm of the family policing system, and imagining a safer future—is going to take all of us. Every donation helps us continue to reach abolitionists, activists, and leaders for the future we want to create together.
Impact Report
We are grateful for the generous support of foundations and individual donors who are helping us change the conversation around family policing and connect the movement in networks from coast to coast.
- In 2023, upEND’s work was cited in 7 books, 94 academic articles, 12 news articles, and 1 crucial court decision.
- We celebrated the launch of the first season of our podcast which rapidly grew to nearly 1,000 subscribers and featured guests Ndjuoh MehChu, Mical Raz, Vanessa M. Holden, Dorothy Roberts, Dylan Rodríguez, Alan Dettlaff, Brianna Harvey, Victoria Copeland, Maya Schenwar, Maya Pendleton, Angela Burton, Joyce McMillan, Shanta Trivedi, and Geoff Ward.
- Our first hybrid Convening included registrants from 43 states and 100 in-person attendees who joined us in Houston, TX. We also used the Convening as an opportunity to gather organizers and impacted persons and assemble the Ending Family Policing Coalition.
Download Reports
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