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 Spring
2009
Mothers Challenge DHS in honor of International Women's Day
Event also marks the 10th anniversary of the Global Women's Strike
On Friday March
6, several dozen mothers, grandmothers, children, and their
supporters gathered in front of the Department of Human Services
(DHS) in downtown Philadelphia. They came together to protest the
agency's priorities and practices.
The women say the DHS has a pattern of mistaking
poverty for neglect. They also accuse DHS of confusing trauma caused
by domestic violence as evidence of poor mothering. Several spoke at
length about their experience trying to get their children back from
the state foster care system. They spoke about encountering abuse,
neglect and racism within the supposed solutions.
Then the group marched to the Arch Street United
Methodist Church, where they held a teach-in.
Facing the
Man Together—Moms Help Each Other
"No one should
have to go meet the man alone," said community organizer Phoebe
Jones. Coordinated by the Every Mother is a Working Mother
Network (EMWMN), the "DHS, Give Us Back Our Children" group is
run on a mutual self-help basis.
Anyone can come, share their story and obtain
advice, and support from their peers. Each person also is expected
to donate their time to helping others. Participants keep tabs on
each case, accompany each other to hearings and meetings, and plan
together how to change the system.
Jones says that their group has helped to reunite
four women with their children. And it has prevented the separation
of families. Many cases are still being fought. No paid staff are
involved in the project. But some of the women used to be social
workers.
One member recently won a precedent-setting case
involving the privacy rights of domestic violence victims. She
explained that hospital staff referred her to Child Protective
Services (CPS) after she was abused by her husband. They told her
that CPS would "protect her children." So she gladly agreed that
they should be involved.
Now she says this was the biggest mistake of her
life. She has had to fight the state as well as her husband. She
also had to fight against being forced to take prescription drugs
that go against her convictions.
Support group members say money should be
redirected toward supporting children and mothers' immediate
monetary needs. This should be done within the existing family
structure. Instead it is spent on a bureaucracy that too often does
harm in the name of help. It is estimated that DHS spends $34,000 a
year per child. “What a mother could do with that money!” says
Pamela Timmons, whose daughter was taken when she asked DHS for
help.
The tragic
effects of providing help in a misguided manner spread to many parts
of life. Jeanne Schmolze is a former social worker who has also
worked in the mental health and substance abuse services field. She
said poor women often experience a lose-lose decision. If they
pursue the assistance they need from the state, it could put them in
danger of having their kids taken by DHS.
"Mothers would rather deal with an addiction than
risk having their children taken from them," she said. The statement
was met with enraged cries of "shame!" at a system that would create
such a trap.
Welfare
Reform — Or: "How We Got Into this Mess"
The EMWM Network evolved out of the fight to
oppose the 1996 welfare “reform.” It ended welfare as a right for
the work of raising children. EMWM says this was possible because
people did not respect the work mothers do — birthing and raising
children. Out of this disrespect grows the myth of the "welfare
queen." This stereotype implies that mothers — and especially women
of color — who don't have paid jobs do nothing.
"When you disrespect the work of caregiving, you
disrespect the people being cared for--as well as for those doing
the work," said Pat Albright. "Nothing is more important than the
care of people. We want our society to act on this." She said that
the whole premise of welfare reform — forcing the poorest women to
take on no-pay or low-pay jobs — should be opposed, not just time
limits and sanctions.
"Now is our chance to put it all on the table,"
Albright said. "You don't know what you can accomplish unless you
try."
Tim Kearney, the former legislative aid for
Philadelphia Councilman David Cohen, concurred. "We should never let
anyone tell us that there isn't enough money to take care of every
one of our children as many ways as is necessary," he said. He went
on to draw connections between the supposed lack of money for
mothers and children, and decisions to spend millions of dollars on
sports stadiums and wars.
"The Philadelphia taxpayers pay 30 million
dollars a year on debt to finance our stadiums!" he said. "That
means as taxpayers we're paying twice. Our governments have so much
money. But we the people don't demand it!"
The event was part of the tenth annual Global Women's Strike. Also
in attendance were members of the Payday Men's Network and
the Philadelphia Childcare Collective. Anita Colon of
Fight for Lifers (F4L) also spoke. She drew connections between
the lack of support for mothers and children, and the monetary
incentives toward longer prison sentences, even life, for juveniles.
Since the corruption in the sentencing of minors in Luzerne County
PA became public, F4L is ratcheting up its organizing against the
prison industrial complex. She urged people to save the date for a
protest at Camp Hill, PA on April 26.
Amy L. Dalton
Philadelphia, PA
Contacts: DHS Give Us Back Our Children 215-848-1120; philly@crossroadswomen.net;
globalwomenstrike.net;
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