Each year, CFR works with approximately 3,000 families. While each family has a unique story and set of challenges and experiences, we’ve seen the same injustices and harm perpetrated by the family policing system over and over again. As a public defender for the city and nationally recognized expert in family defense, we believe in using our platform for change.
CFR staff meet with elected officials, participate in more than 39 commissions addressing system reform, draft legislation, write op-eds and letters to the editor, and provide public testimony to city and state bodies. This advocacy work has shed much-needed light on what happens within the family policing system and helped to pass legislative reforms that reduce harm to families.
In coalition with community members, system-impacted parents, defenders, and advocates, we are working towards a future where the family policing system no longer exists and Black and Brown families in New York City have the freedom to raise their children with self-determination, abundant support, and community.
The policy team at CFR is guided by the following Core Values and Principles:
We educate the public on the harm the family policing system inflicts on Black and Brown families and use our position within the system to advocate for meaningful legislative reforms.
Our advocacy helped result in the passage of the State Central Register (SCR) Reform Bill, which will eventually change the way the State keeps records on parents like CFR’s clients, so that their records of family policing involvement will not prevent them from securing work.
Our advocacy with the New York City Council helped CFR and other defender offices expand their work to represent parents during family policing investigations and in SCR proceedings.
We collaborated with staff from our criminal and youth defense practices to write a Memo advocating for legislation to Repeal New York Civil Rights Law 50-a, which brought greater transparency and accountability to police officers, firefighters, and corrections officers.
In February 2024, CFR and other leading public defender organizations wrote a joint op-ed for Black History Month about the vital need for Black parents to know their rights when ACS knocks. In 2023, CFR wrote a joint op-ed for National Family Preservation Month about the importance of keeping families together and investing in them and their communities.
All parents and youth should be informed of their rights and have access to quality, timely defense at the start of every family policing investigation.
All families should be able to access affordable and quality childcare, housing, and mental health services without fear of drug testing without informed consent, mandated reporting, or anonymous harassing reporting to the State Central Register. Children should have access to a quality education and holistic community support, including resources for trans youth and support for family-based immigration.
All families deserve access to basic necessities, including expanded public assistance, SNAP (food stamp) programs, and a universal basic income and universal child allowance.
All incarcerated people have a human right to safe and habitable conditions, appropriate medical care, and gender-affirming care. There should be an end to over-policing in Black and Brown communities and a focus on restorative justice and real opportunities for formerly incarcerated adults and youth.
All people deserve access to safe housing and should be supported by cash assistance for rent, housing subsidies for any housing-based debt, and Good Cause required for any eviction.
We are currently members of several coalitions and advocacy groups like the Parents Legislative Action Network (PLAN), the New York Mandated Reporting Working Group, and the New York State Cash Alliance dedicated to family, criminal, and immigration policing abolition and harm reduction, youth advocacy, and anti-poverty work.
The Center for Family Representation (CFR) fights for the dignity and self-determination of the primarily Black and Brown parents and youth who are targeted by systems of family policing and incarceration. We release public statements on timely events and policy decisions that directly impact the communities we serve and align with the positions we have taken in our policy platform. When publishing statements, our goals are to add CFR’s unique perspective to the larger conversation, uplift the work of advocates and communities fighting for justice, and offer relevant resources to our readers.
Statement in Response to Mayor Adams’ Plan to Force Asylum-Seeking Families Out of Homeless Shelters, Thursday, October 19, 2023
Statement Condemning SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action, Monday, July 3, 2023
Statement on the Killing of Jordan Neely, Friday, May 5, 2023
Statement on Proposed Rollbacks to Current Discovery Laws, Tuesday, April 18, 2023
CFR Denounces SCOTUS Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade, Friday, June 24, 2022
Statement in Response to the Racially-Motivated Mass Shooting in Buffalo, New York, Wednesday, May 18, 2022
New York City Defenders Request Reinstatement of Protections of the Family Court Act, Friday, June 4, 2021
Joint Statement in Response to Racial Slurs, Friday, April 16, 2021
ASFA Threatens Family Bonds – Stop the Clock, March 2021
Letter to Governor Cuomo and State Legislature, Thursday, February 11, 2021
Supreme Court’s Ruling – Ending DACA was Improper, Thursday, June 18, 2020
Reforms Needed – Juvenile & Criminal Justice Systems, 2020
Your donation helps us expand our services and support while we continue to defend thousands of Black and Brown families in New York City targeted by the family policing system.