I grew up experiencing many different kinds of abuse. When I was 12 I started taking medication to stabilize my emotions, but when I was 21and married with three children, I tried to stop taking them. Then I felt distant, like I was in my own world, what I call Erica’s world, where it’s all about me and no one has feelings but me.
A part of me wanted to go back … Read More
Friends to Fathers is a New York-based program that supports child welfare-affected fathers to become more accountable for their actionsand reunify with their families. My husband found support there when we were going through our child welfare case.
Derek Silvers, who was the director of the program when my husband went there, told us that the majority of referrals from child welfare are for domestic violence. But, he says, what’s really going … Read More
A year ago, New York City Children’s Services (ACS) asked my husband and me to come to their office with our children. At that point, myfamily already had been through a 60-day investigation. Now we had to attend a Child Safety Conference.
The goal of these conferences is to reach an agreement about a plan that protects your children, whether that means that your children enter foster care, stay with kin, or … Read More
Last October my boyfriend and I had our small wedding ceremony at City Hall. We already had a baby girl, Emma, and I was close to delivering number two. My mother came to stay with us for the weekend, and at one point she went out to the store and didn’t return until about three hours later. It was clear that she’d been drinking, and I could smell the booze on her breath.
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