Videos

Derecka Purnell and Dorothy Roberts Keynote Discussion on Becoming Abolitionists | How We endUp Convening 2021

Derecka Purnell and Dorothy Roberts keynote discussion on Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and The Pursuit of Freedom for the upEND Movement’s second annual convening of organizers, activists, scholars, and community leaders who are committed to dismantling the family policing system,* a system predicated on the subjugation, surveillance, control, and punishment of mostly poor Black and Native children and families.

Recorded October 26, 2021.

*The upEND Movement has adopted the term family policing system to refer to the child welfare system.

Panel on Repeal Mandatory Reporting Laws | How We endUp Convening 2021

The upEND Movement’s Panel on Repeal Mandatory Reporting Laws for the second annual convening of organizers, activists, scholars, and community leaders who are committed to dismantling the family policing system, a system predicated on the subjugation, surveillance, control, and punishment of mostly poor Black and Native children and families.

Panel Participants:
• Maya Pendleton
• Victoria Copeland
• Brianna Harvey
• Elenda Gormley, MSW
• Joyce McMillian

Recorded October 26, 2021.

Adoption and White Saviorism | How We endUp Convening 2021

An upEND Conversation on Adoption and White Saviorism with Kathryn Joyce and Bill Bettencourt for the second annual convening of organizers, activists, scholars, and community leaders who are committed to dismantling the family policing system, a system predicated on the subjugation, surveillance, control, and punishment of mostly poor Black and Native children and families.

Recorded October 27, 2021.

Repeal the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) | How We endUp Convening 2021

The upEND Movement’s Panel on Repeal the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) for the second annual convening of organizers, activists, scholars, and community leaders who are committed to dismantling the family policing system, a system predicated on the subjugation, surveillance, control, and punishment of mostly poor Black and Native children and families.

Panel Participants:
• Ashley Albert
• Bishop Marcia Dinkins
• Kelis Houston
• Vonya Quarles
• April Lee
• Kathleen Creamer

Recorded October 27, 2021.

How We EndUP: Black Feminist Dreams for the Future

Abolishing the family policing system requires the creation of another world and the reimagining, or remembering, of care. As Black feminism instructs, the liberatory project of abolition requires the making of a society that is free of all systems of oppression. Thus, this webinar will address how Black feminist theory and understandings, including reproductive justice, guide us toward the abolition of the family policing system and the creation of (envision) a society where children, families, and communities are no longer over surveilled by state systems and have the power and resources for what they need to live freely and abundantly.

Speakers:
• Victoria Copeland
• Chelsea Williams-Diggs
• Maya Pendleton (moderator)

Recorded May 18, 2021.

Laura Briggs

CSSP Senior Fellow Bill Bettencourt is joined by Laura Briggs, Professor, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, College of Humanities & Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In this video, they discuss what Dr. Briggs calls American Terror—the history in this country of the child welfare system taking children and its evolution into policing and surveillance. Further, how this historical and current structure makes the solid case for abolition of the child welfare system.

Recorded August 11, 2020.

NOTE: At the 4:59 mark, Laura references the 14th Amendment as the Amendment that abolished slavery; it was the 13th Amendment.

Marlon Peterson

Alan Dettlaff, Dean of the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston speaks with Marlon Peterson for this conversation on upENDing systems. Marlon hosts the Decarcerated Podcast and is an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity. He is also the founder and chief re-imaginator of The Precedential Group, a social justice consulting firm, and a 2015 recipient of the prestigious Soros Justice Fellowship.

Recorded July 17, 2020.

Conversations with CASA: The upEND Movement

This episode of Conversations with CASA features the co-leads of the newly launched upEND Movement. The upEND Movement is designed to tap into work already being done and spark new work that will ultimately create a society in which the forcible separation of children from their families is no longer an acceptable solution for families in need.

Recorded October 5, 2020.