Imani Worthy (she/her)

For nearly a decade, Erin Miles Cloud had the privilege of being a family defense attorney at the Bronx Defenders where she worked to defend parents from one of our most violent carceral systems: Child Protective Services. Often exempted from analysis of structural violence, Erin came to learn that the foster care system is one of the most profoundly racist institutions in America.   

As a supervising attorney and then team leader at Bronx Defenders, Erin met children who grew up in the foster system, only to be later judged as parents by the institutions that “raised” them. She tried to fight the civil death penalty—termination of parental rights—but for Black and Latinx families, this seemed an impossible battle to win. The challenges her clients' families faced were ones that many families face: substance use, intimate partner violence, and mental illness, etc. However, because of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, the response to these social issues was always punishment. One of Erin's students in her externship class at Columbia quickly made this connection after just one day in family court. She said that “families everywhere struggle, but only the low-income, Brown, and Black find themselves at the mercy of the child welfare system”.

Like many others, CPS has become involved with Erin's family. Also, like many others, she has not seen this system heal or protect her family members. Erin believes that movement theory is an integral component to radical shifts in thinking and policy that may give us the possibility to be better, do better, and end the punishment and policing of families.

Tracy Serdjenian is a queer SWANA organizer and writer—and a proud auntie. Tracy is the Storytelling Manager at North Star Fund, where she is part of the communications team. Previously, she was the Communications Director at Rise. Over the past 20 years, she served at nonprofits in a variety of roles including communications and information services; written, digital and oral storytelling projects; and research and policy, including participatory action research.

Being from a family, community and culture impacted by the denied genocide of Armenian people and devastated by the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Artsakh in 2023, Tracy considers storytelling essential for speaking truth to power, raising awareness, building community and solidarity, sharing joy and wisdom and supporting advocacy. She recognizes the interconnection between all movements for justice, healing, liberation and self-determination.

Bianca Shaw is a queer, Black femme from the Bronx. Bianca is a facilitator, consultant, social worker, healing practitioner and aspiring coach. She also formerly served as Co-Executive Director at RISE, an organization that centers the lived experiences and leadership of parents impacted by the child welfare system. Her work sits at the intersection of race, class, and reproductive justice. 

Bianca built RISE’s organizational capacity by developing and evaluating programs as well as creating pathways for leadership development. Through popular education and healing-justice practices, Bianca co-created an organizational culture at RISE that is rooted in relationship and community building, collective care and radical reimagination. Bianca believes that we need many people, gifts and strategies to create a liberated world, and that those who put their time and energy to be on the frontline for freedom deserve to be cared for, invested in, and have access to joy and rest just as much as we seek to create those conditions for others. 

 Imani Worthy is a Bronx native whose family  was impacted by the child welfare system in 2019. Following this experience, she pursued advocacy work, holding roles such as Public Speaking Coordinator at Rise Magazine and Family Advocate at the Center for Family Representation. Imani is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Black Families Love and Unite (BLU), an organization dedicated to empowering Black and Brown families and dismantling systems of oppression. She holds an MBA and is deeply committed to holistic and restorative justice practices, including circle keeping and somatic wellness to create meaningful change for our communities.