Rise Magazine: Uplifting Every Voice

October 2, 2018

“When you are powerless in a system that is tearing your family apart, you hold on to any little ray of hope. My hope and strength came from my boys and the deep and instinctual knowledge that I, as their mother, could not and would not allow strangers to obliterate the years of nurture and love I had provided to my children.”

Dinah Ortiz-Adames, our Parent Advocate Supervisor, endured a 7-year fight with ACS to raise her boys Her past is now fuel to fight alongside other parents who feel disempowered or trapped in a child welfare system that wants them to fail.

“I met other women who had also lost years with their children,” she said. “Every story gave me strength to fight for women like me.”