This Rise paper was published online in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022).
The expertise and leadership of parents and youth with lived experience of family policing belong at the center of the movement to abolish the system, just as Black folk are centered in Black Lives Matter. Those personally impacted and affected by a system should be the lead and face of advocacy, using their first-hand experience to lead the movement in the direction they choose based on insights only they have. No one understands the repercussions of a system more than those who have experienced it themselves. They have the most to gain in mobilizing for change and the most to lose in the status quo. Those without life experience can be helpful in advocating for and contributing to a movement—but allies should not set the agenda. In the movement for family policing abolition, parents, youth and families who have been directly impacted by the system must be the architects of their own activism and political agenda—with the allyship of advocates, academics, community organizations and city agencies doing what it takes to truly serve their constituents.
This piece shares the work Rise has done with intensity since 2018 to build both an organizational culture that invests in and centers parent power and a political vision that centers parents’ expertise. In a 2019 strategic planning retreat, the Rise staff decided to informally but actively begin to engage in inquiry and learning about abolition together. In 2020, Rise held an all-staff abolition retreat led by Bianca Shaw and Genevieve Saavedra Dalton Parker (of Rise) that brought everyone together to learn about abolition and coalesce around our vision for our work. Rise then continued our abolition learning together by engaging all staff in the process of developing this piece over the course of five months in 2021.
Please click Centering Parent Leadership in the Movement to Abolish Family Policing to access the article.
Comments (0)