Featured post

Candlelight Vigil for families torn apart – Philadelphia, Wednesday Dec 18

1 Reply

Wednesday, Dec 18  4:30-5:30pm at the Department of Human Services (DHS) 1515 Arch St, Philadelphia   (program at 5pm)

Join Carolyn Hill in lighting a candle for a loved one not home for the holidays because in foster care, group home, prison, solitary confinement, psych ward, juvenile or immigrant detention, a juvenile lifer, poverty draft, nursing home ….

Add your loved one’s name who is not home for the holidays in the comments here, or on the Facebook page . To endorse the vigil, please click here.
Continue reading →

Featured post

Support the RISE Act and Reintroduction of the WORK Act!

End poverty of mothers & children. Recognize caregiving work.
• Sign the petition to US Congress • 30+ current endorsers — Please add your organization today! Send this letter to your mailing lists and contacts.


For the first time in decades there is a piece of legislation and one we want reintroduced in the US Congress that recognize the work of mothers.

The RISE Out of Poverty Act (Gwen Moore, D-WI) would make ending child poverty the primary goal of TANF. The Women’s Option to Raise Kids (WORK) Act which needs to be reintroduced into Congress (was introduced in the last Congress by former Congressman Pete Stark, D- CA), recognized that raising children is vital work, and would give mothers the option of raising young children fulltime at home under current welfare legislation (TANF). The two bills together are a power for mothers everywhere, whether we are low income or not. They begin to finally value and provide resources for mothers and to undermine the growing poverty of women and children.

Sign the petition to US Congress • Call to Action • Join the growing list of endorsing organizations • About the bills • Letter to Members of Congress, Congressional Black Caucus • Letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer • 2Pac: Dear Mama • More…

Featured post

End racial, income & education bias in the child welfare system – Reunite Ms Carolyn Hill with her Nieces!

Carolyn Hill with her grandchildren
Carolyn Hill with her grandchildren

Defend the Hill family from racial, income, gender & education bias in the child welfare system! Sign the petition demanding the Philadelphia Department of Human Services return two girls unjustly taken from their aunt who was their full time caregiver.Not being a high school grad or having a GED must not used as a reason to remove children from their caregiver!

Sign the petition to DHS • What you can do • Aug 20 hearing • Background • Outrage at UN Award • More…

There is a lot at stake in this fight:

  • the right of low-income people to raise children;
  • the right of children, especially those who have been traumatized, to one-on-one care and the right of caregivers to answer this vital need for care;
  • the right of family members to legal representation and to have standing in court; and
  • holding DHS, child advocates & agencies to account before they decide to demolish families.

Your help is needed! There is much to do to win justice for these children and their carer!

Endorse the Candlelight Vigil for families torn apart, Philadelphia Wed Dec 18

Leave a reply

“My nieces were removed from my care by the Phila Department of Human Services in 2012 because of racial and economic profiling and because I don’t have a GED. This is my second Christmas without them, and theirs without me. Please join me in lighting a candle for all our loved ones who are not home for the holidays.” Carolyn Hill

Dear Friends:

We invite you to endorse a candlelight vigil for families torn apart by being unjustly removed from their families by the Department of Human Services and the foster care system, prison, war, poverty, immigration policies … The vigil is being held on Wed December 18 from 4:30-5:30pm outside of the Department of Human Services.  Please come and light a candle for your loved one who is not home for the holidays and speak out about their situation.

The co-sponsorship form is below and flyer is attached.  We will send you an updated flyer with the supporters listed soon.  Thank you. Continue reading →

Reunite military refuser Kimberly Rivera with her newborn son and family!

Leave a reply

Kimberly Rivera is a soldier and mother of five imprisoned for refusing to redeploy to Iraq.  Rather than grant her clemency in the last few weeks of her sentence, the military separated her son from her after she gave birth in prison last week. She has not been allowed to breastfeed or bond with her newborn.  For the latest news and what you can do, see the Free Kimberly Rivera website.

The following is a letter women at the Crossroads Women’s Center in Philadelphia (where Every Mother is a Working Mother Network is based) wrote to the Ft. Carson prison authorities:

We at the Crossroads Women’s Center in Philadelphia are shocked and outraged that a mother and child are being prevented from bonding and breastfeeding because the mother refused to harm others. This is a terrible, unnecessary, and cruel and unusual punishment for mother and baby. Breastfeeding is not an optional extra. It provides essential lifelong physical and mental health benefits. Please release Kimberly Rivera immediately so she can nurture and provide her baby with the best start in life. You are punishing caring and rewarding killing.

The Rivera family

The Rivera family

The Rivera family

Matthew Rivera

Victory – New York Appeals Court Affirms Rights of Pregnant Women

Leave a reply

From National Advocates for Pregnant Women.  Every Mother is a Working Mother signed the amicus brief. 

Please see below a press release about yesterday’s significant victory in the New York Appeals Court that affirmed the rights of pregnant women. Additionally, we hope you will read this important commentary published today on RH Reality Check, “Are Pregnant Women Persons After 20 Weeks’ Gestation?,” about 20-week abortion bans and the pending ballot measure vote in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Tuesday, November 19.

Continue reading →

Help us get to Tucson: Tear Down the Walls national gathering Nov 1-3

Leave a reply

Please help us get our grassroots multiracial delegation of women and men from across the country to this critical gathering.

Meeting to share strategies and experiences with other grassroots organizers will strengthen us all in demanding that society prioritize the care of people and the planet, and end poverty and war.

Tear Down the Walls – the largest gathering in 2013 – is “bringing multiple movements to strategize and network together on how to build a more unified, powerful movement for transformational change in the US.”  It is critical that the voices of women and others most impacted by unjust social and economic policies be heard.

Continue reading →

Videos: When the Punishment is a Crime – A Forum on Solitary Confinement

Leave a reply

A multi-racial group of about 60 people gathered at the Germantown Friends School for a forum on solitary confinement on September 21. The crowd included Formerly Incarcerated Persons (FIPs), family members with loved ones inside, the religious community, students, and women’s, prisoner rights, civil rights, disability rights, peace and justice groups (see list of groups represented at the end). The speakers were excellent and much of the audience participated in the lively discussion. All agreed that this was a beginning, not the end, and have vowed to continue to work together and take collective action (see list of suggested actions below).

Continue reading →