Family Court Awareness Month

by Tina Swithin

As I look at the beautiful faces represented here, I am overcome with sadness and anger.

Custody Peace shared a quote with me this week - maybe one of the most powerful quotes I've ever heard as it is so relevant to family court reform:

“The solutions are in the trauma.” -Alfa Demmallash

The solutions seem so simple: prioritize child safety, always.

When in doubt, err on the side of caution, always.

We are moving into October’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month – domestic abuse is about power and control.

From there, we move into November’s Family Court Awareness Month – domestic abuse does not end when the relationship ends, the need for power and control takes root in the family court system which becomes the new platform for the abuser.

This November, we mark the third annual Family Court Awareness Month.

We will continue with the momentum that has been building for two years and we will be lifting these billboards up, all across the country. On each billboard, we will be lifting up the innocent lives lost – those who have been failed by the family court system. Each one of these beautiful souls should have been protected yet, they weren’t.

They should be here with us today, but they aren’t.

We believe the solutions are in the trauma, they truly are.

We need to hear the stories.

We need to truly listen.

We are tired of talking about the problems, we want to talk about the solutions.

“We’ve paved a highway for states with VAWA Kayden’s Law (‘Keeping Children Safe from Family Violence’), now all they need to do is ask us which left to take and how to get over the speed bumps.”-Danielle Pollack, National Family Violence Law Center.

We invite you to support our awareness campaigns for November – each of these billboards will link to the individual fundraisers.

Each one of these children should be with us today.

Each one of these children have family members who love them dearly - and begged for family court professionals to act in their best interest, to err on the side of caution and to keep them safe.