The Power of Language: What do “Family Policing” and “Child and Family Well-Being” Mean?

As part of our learning journey, we have been reflecting on the power of language to name and describe what is known as the “child welfare system.” Family policing scholar and advocate Dorothy Roberts has advocated for people to challenge their framing and language to accurately reflect the system’s harms. [...] ‘Child protection system’ is inaccurate at best and harmful at worst: It paints the agency as an intervening body that shields children from the harms of their families, demonizing families before an intervention has even begun.” Defining Family Policing - Further Reading • The upEND movement A collaboration between The Center for the Study of Social Policy and the University of Houston Graduate C. [...] Defining Family Policing – Webinars • Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re- Envisioning Child Well-Being Symposium Columbia Journal of Race and Law, June 2021 In preparation for the launch of Volume 11 of the Columbia Journal of Race and Law, Columbia Law School hosted a symposium to insights from the articles published in this volume. [...] 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.” Defining Child a. [...] It is therefore necessary to have the tools to measure the effectiveness of government policies in promoting the totality of family wellbeing.” • Coast Salish Laws Relating to Child and Caregiver Nurturance & Safety NIȽ TU,O Child and Family Services (NIȽ TU,O) and Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU), March 2022 While this toolkit uses the language of nurturance and safety rather than well-being,.