CFCC’s keynote speakers, Sonia Cohen and Shereen White, left the audience speechless. Cohen shared her brother’s wish that one day, they would all be together again after being separated and put into the foster system due to her mother’s mental health struggles, substance use disorder, trauma and poverty. Cohen described painful experiences of the foster system and eventually the youth legal system where so many foster youths end up. In 16 years, Cohen lived in 20 foster care homes and youth detention centers. She shared how she endured physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of correctional officers.  She described in raw detail how these systems, charged with taking care of her, instead intensified the pain she was experiencing, being separated from her mother and siblings and focusing only on their profit.  Cohen conveyed how system actors believe the negative narratives that surround the people they serve and stop looking for real solutions. She felt that these people believed that children like her were destined to repeat the mistakes of their parents and as such, aren’t worth investing in. In Cohen’s words, “help comes last, if it comes at all.”  Cohen also shared her experiences as a kinship caregiver to her nieces.  In many instances, she wished she had more to give because they deserved everything, but she was young, financially unstable and doing her best to give them the best childhood she could. Despite the challenges she faced, Cohen raised her nieces and gave them a happy home and later became a mother, herself. Eventually, Cohen’s brother’s wish did come true, but not in the way that he envisioned.  Sadly, the surviving siblings reunited at his funeral.

Shereen White shared her upbringing in a low-income, close-knit family led by hardworking parents. Her father, her hero, worked multiple jobs and went back to school to become a nurse. Despite material hardship, her parents created joy and stability through creativity, togetherness, and love. These early experiences taught her the strength in resourcefulness and the value of family bonds. She reflected on her father’s traumatic childhood: being separated from his siblings and placed in foster care after his mother was institutionalized. These events deeply shaped his life—and hers. This intergenerational story of loss and resilience sparked her commitment to child advocacy. Initially, as a public defender for children in child welfare cases, she believed she was protecting children. Over time, she realized she was participating in a system that often harms the very families it claims to protect—especially Black and Brown families. She recounts being trained to override her instincts and consent to terminating parental rights, despite her initial resistance. Her work, today at Children’s Rights focuses on exposing the truth – the family regulation system is not neutral, but instead disproportionately targets Black families.  White shared how she grieves for her father’s loss and worries about the threats her own Black sons may face but she is also determined to build a system rooted not in punishment and control, but in justice, equality, and love.