Background from our sisters in Give Us Back Our Children who are part of SNS international network: In 2019 hundreds of mothers and families testified at Philadelphia City Council hearings about the unjust removal of their children and damage done to them when they were torn apart. They exposed the targeting of Black single mother families and other discrimination – 65% of children taken are Black and Philadelphia takes children at one of the highest rates for cities of its size in the US. This led to the formation of the City Council Special Committee on Child Separation which issued groundbreaking recommendations, including that poverty must not be conflated with neglect, in 2022. Now GUBOC is organising the press the City Council to implement these important recommendations and has written an Open Letter to City Council members – see below.

Photo: Carolyn Hill from GUBOC testifying at the City Council hearings about her fight to keep her nieces who she raised for several years but were tragically taken from her when the Department of Human Services (Social Services) decided they would be better off with more distant but wealthier relatives. 14 years later the girls are suffering mental health issues.