WHY WE NEED RCSBAB

On any given day, there are over 400,000 children in the US child welfare system. Nationally, Black and Indigenous children are overrepresented in the foster care system, with Black children accounting for one-quarter of all children in foster care, and Indigenous children being nearly three times as likely as their White peers to enter the foster care system.

​

In the Northern California region, there are over 15,000 children in foster care. In Northern California, each county approaches the child welfare system differently and unequally. This is because county child welfare systems differ in their approaches, leading to unequal outcomes for families depending on where they live.

​

However, all child welfare systems work in direct partnership with the police and sheriff departments and are complicit in the police state that terrorizes and devastates Black families. Counties in Northern California have different levels of awareness of how anti-Blackness is present in the child welfare system, and how, because of this, Black families and communities are being irreparably damaged. Removing children from their families is not protecting them; it is traumatizing them.

The #ReimagineChildSafety Coalition is an independent coalition that builds on the work of BLM to #DefundThePolice and #ReimaginePublicSafety by bringing together individuals and organizations that want to #ReimagineChildSafety and protect Black families from the ongoing terror and trauma caused by these interlocking systems of oppression. If you or your organization would like to join the coalition, please complete this brief form and a member of the coalition will be in touch with you.