Movement for Family Power works to end the Foster System's policing and punishment of families and to create a world where the dignity and integrity of all families is valued and supported.

Areas of their work:
Building out a loving, healthy community with and amongst people working to shrink the Foster system.

Raising social consciousness around the harms of the Foster System and forced family separation to to support the reclaiming and reimagining of Safe and Healthy Families.

​Disrupting and curtailing Foster System Pipelines, reducing the level of harm inflicted by forced family separations.

The Bronx Defenders

Our dedicated attorneys, social workers, and parent advocates in the Family Defense Practice zealously defend Bronx parents against the painful and unnecessary removal of their children and the potential dissolution of their families. 

​In 2007, the Family Defense Practice became the first institutional provider for parents in the Bronx charged with abuse and neglect and who are potentially facing termination of parental rights. For the past 15 years we have leveraged our model of holistic representation to provide members of the community facing child welfare involvement with an innovative and zealous legal defense. We work to establish innovative and client-centered solutions to address any underlying issues faced by our clients and their families. In addition to defending against the charges of neglect and abuse, we fight to keep families together with comprehensive motion practice, litigation, and preventative advocacy.

Brooklyn Defender Services
(Family Defense Project)

The Family Defense Project (BFDP) was formed in 2007 in response to a Request for Proposal issued by the City of New York that envisioned an institutional provider for respondents in Article 10 cases. Originally an office of Legal Services-NYC (LS-NYC), in December 2012, BFDP separated from LS-NYC and joined BDS. BFDP’s in-court and out-of -court advocacy has resulted in over 5,000 children leaving foster care out of the 6,500 of our clients’ children who were in care at some point during the Article 10 case. 

The focus of BFDP’s work is to assert the due process rights of parents in Family Court, including their constitutional right to family integrity, while providing access to the benefits and services families need to stay together. Our highest priority is to get and keep children out of foster care safely. Studies and experience show that foster care stays result in poor outcomes for children due to the trauma of separation from their families and repeated moves within the foster care system. By zealously representing parents, BFDP reduces the likelihood of foster care placement in the first instance and reduces the average time children spend in foster care overall.