Our Story & Values

Founded in 2018, Movement for Family Power (MFP) is the first national organization focused on abolishing the family policing system.

MFP is an abolitionist movement hub and incubator, cultivating and harnessing community power to end family policing and build a world where all families can thrive. We resource and support grassroots organizers and lived experts on the frontlines of dismantling the family policing system through our three-pronged approach: connection, capacity, and care.

We envision a world rooted in racial and reproductive justice–where all families are protected from state violence and forced separation; where the dignity and bodily autonomy of every pregnant, birthing, and parenting person is upheld; and where all families and communities receive essential resources to nurture our relationships and keep us safe.

jasmine Sankofa (center), MFP Executive Director, with Lisa Sangoi (left) and Erin Miles-Cloud (right), MFP Co-Founders.

We unapologetically center BIPOC mamas, recognizing how white supremacy, anti-Black racism, and gender injustice function to sever sacred familial bonds.

A Black pregnant person gently holds their belly with both hands forming a heart shape. Behind them, pink and orange flowers create a wing-like formation.

Evolving into a Movement Hub

Since our founding, MFP has been guided by movement lawyering principles in our work to build a thriving movement ecosystem. We have provided mutual aid to lived experts by securing housing, health insurance, and educational resources; filled infrastructure gaps through technical assistance, including grant writing and funder introductions; transformed informal collectives into sustainable campaigns; shown up in defense of activists facing retaliation; shifted and shaped the narrative around family policing; worked across allied movements to ground family policing abolition within the broader freedom struggle; and broken isolation among those committed to fostering movement networks of collaboration, support, and friendship. 

By 2023, it was clear our movement was in need of a centralized space to deepen our reach—and with strong roots in this work, MFP was well-positioned to fill this gap. After a successful leadership transition, we launched a multi-month participatory planning process in January 2024. After nine listening sessions, two surveys, and a healing retreat, MFP evolved into a hub and incubator to advance our movement from its nascent stage into its Spring.

Our Beliefs & Values

  • It takes a village to raise a child.

    We believe in shared responsibility for the health and wellbeing of our families and communities and are cultivating joy and healing justice in our movement.

  • I am because you are.

    We believe in the inherent dignity of all people and are building alignment across movements, recognizing that our struggles and abolitionist dreams are deeply intertwined.

  • If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

    We believe that change is only possible through building and leveraging people power and are supporting frontline organizers to grow our movement ecosystem.

  • Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.

    We believe in strategic partnerships and accountability and are deepening our relationships for long-term movement sustainability.

  • Go back and retrieve.

    We believe that we must learn from the past in order to make progress in the future and are guided by ancestral wisdom from the movements before us as we develop a roadmap for movements after us.

  • With a little seed of imagination, you can grow a field of hope.

    We believe that the world we envision is possible and are convening spaces and incubating ideas that will help get us all free.