The Native Student and Family Wellness Initiative Joins the Coalition!

The Native Student and Family Wellness Initiative has just signed on to our Points of Unity  about how jails and family courts harm youth, families and communities of color.  The impact of criminalization and child welfare systems on native communities is severe.  Native people are incarcerated at a rate 38% higher than the national average. A key strategy of colonization in the US has been to break up native families. As a result, advocates fought for the Indian Child Welfare Act, aiming to make it more difficult for US government agencies to break up native families and remove native children from native communities.  Today, the US Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to native communities in a decision that weakens the Indian Child Welfare Act.  In King County, native families are targeted by the child welfare system.  Our fight to stop the County from investing $210 million in a new project to build a youth jail and courts where families will be separated is a fight against the ongoing colonial and racist violence perpetrated by these systems.  We are excited to have the Native Student and Family Wellness Initiative on board!   Fight to win!