From Welfare Warriors
Happy Holidays from Welfare Warriors!
- Fri, Nov 28 2025 at 6:00 AMDear friends,Happy Holidays! We hope you are well! We have been busy with our work at the Mothers Organizing Center and next year is our 40th anniversary. We are so excited to soon celebrate 40 years of standing up for mamas and families. We could use your support to keep going in 2026. Click here to donate.We have been joining the Support Not Separation Coalition's International Day of Action the first Wednesday of each month. Once a month we've been flying inside Children's Court, picketing outside the Division of Milwaukee CPS or protesting Milwaukee's privatized CPS agencies. This is in solidarity with family activists in other cities around the world. We are so happy to be part of this important coalition! We have also been inspired by amazing activists around the country who have successfully pushed for opening Children's Court hearings to bloggers and the media. As Welfare Warriors founder, Pat Gowens, wrote, "More moms are becoming energized around the CPS illegal child snatching horrors.”As it stands, Milwaukee Children's Court hearings are closed. This makes it easier for child welfare profiteers to gang up on mamas, as well as confuse them with legal jargon. Several Welfare Warriors board members have started organizing to make Milwaukee County Children's Court open to the press and regularly have zoom meetings with mamas in other states who are doing the same. Will you support our volunteer family court advocates and the campaign to open the courts?Maya came to us for help when her eight kids were taken by CPS. She went through three public defenders and decided to represent herself. The lawyers, CPS workers and even the judge tried to pressure Maya into giving up custody of three of her kids in order to get five back.Maya would not back down. With our help, she regained custody of all eight of her kids. She pressured the poverty profiteers into giving her rental assistance so she could move into a place large enough for their needs. She now joins our board meetings and helps other moms going through similar situations.Earlier this year, we were able to put out an issue of Mother Warrior's Voice. Hooray! We were hoping to start putting out an issue twice a year but the cost of printing and shipping have gone up drastically so we are now only planning one a year. But even publishing and mailing yearly is a big part of our budget.Most people who subscribe and distribute are low or no income so many are not able to send in a donation to help cover the costs. We are sad to say that we haven't been able to get any grants this year, even ones we received in the past. Due to Trump's cuts, many nonprofits are seeking out emergency grants to keep going so this makes getting them much more difficult.Our largest individual supporter, who was a Reverend and former leader of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, has passed away.We send a large amount of Mother Warrior Voice subscriptions to prisoners and low income caregivers around the country. With poverty and the prison population surging, we know this will be an ever-increasing, but necessary, cost. A donation to Welfare Warriors can help those who really need to know that they are not alone!Since our last letter, we found an infestation of termites in one side of the Mothers Organizing Center, which was another drain on our resources. All mamas and other caregivers at Welfare Warriors are volunteers. Every donation goes directly into our important fight. You can help us continue this work for 40 more years!Please send a donation today via our gofundme (click here) or mail to Welfare Warriors, 2711 W. Michigan St. Milwaukee, WI 53208. Thank you for your support and have a great new year!Peace to you, our friends,Amada, Lela, Jo Anne, Jazmin & MichaelWelfare Warriors
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