For Team Emancipate, the work to transform “child welfare” is personal. It is shaped by the experiences of Toia Potts, a grieving mother and Emancipate’s newest organizer. Durham’s family policing system terminated her parental rights for two boys after she spent years jumping through hoops with DSS and the court to try to regain custody – despite being recognized as a good mother by multiple experts.
Toia, along with her attorney, Elizabeth Simpson, continue to fight to return her children to their kin in Georgia. Meanwhile, Toia is drawing power from her own experiences to organize for system transformation. Her struggle was featured this week by WBTV Charlotte’s “On Your Side,” which highlighted how the broken “child welfare” system so thoroughly failed Toia’s family.