For Our Children and Families
movement + advocacy community
About the Movement
For Our Children and Families is a child-first reform movement focused on addressing systemic delays, accountability failures, and harmful incentives within family court systems.
The movement exists because time matters differently for children than it does for institutions. Prolonged delays in matters affecting custody, safety, education, and stability are not neutral administrative issues — they are sources of measurable developmental harm. When systems tolerate delay, children bear the cost.
This effort is supported by a statewide advocacy community of volunteers — parents, educators, clinicians, and neighbors — who believe that the developmental health of a child must always outweigh the administrative or economic comfort of the system. The advocacy community does not exist to control families or replace professional roles. It exists to restore urgency, transparency, and responsibility where those qualities have been allowed to erode.
For Our Children and Families is not a nonprofit organization and does not accept monetary donations. It is powered entirely by volunteer participation and community engagement. Families help families. Neighbors support neighbors.
The movement focuses on reforming process and incentives — not attacking individuals. Judges, clerks, attorneys, mediators, and guardians ad litem are often working under constraints they did not create. The failure is structural. The remedy is systemic.
By advancing earlier intervention, clearer timelines, transparent reporting, and child-centered sequencing, the movement seeks to reduce unnecessary conflict, shorten litigation timelines, and prevent avoidable harm.
This is not about punishment. It is about sunlight. It is not about expanding government authority over families. It is about ensuring that government does not cause harm through inaction.
Childhood is not renewable. Systems must reflect that reality.
What We Do
For Our Children and Families focuses on three core areas:
Advocacy
We advocate for child-centered reforms that address systemic delay, misaligned incentives, and accountability gaps in family court processes. This includes engaging legislators, court administrators, and the public to ensure that time-sensitive decisions affecting children are treated with appropriate urgency.
Community Support
Our advocacy community helps families navigate complex systems by sharing knowledge, organization tools, and peer support. We help families stay oriented, informed, and supported during periods of prolonged uncertainty — without replacing professional or legal roles.
Transparency & Accountability
We work to make delay visible. By documenting patterns, elevating lived experience, and supporting anonymized reporting, we promote public accountability and informed reform. Sunlight is not punishment — it is how improvement begins.
What We Don’t Do
Clarity matters. This movement is defined as much by what it does not do as by what it does.
- We do not provide legal advice or representation.
- We do not replace judges, attorneys, mediators, guardians ad litem, or clinicians.
- We do not target, harass, or publicly attack individual professionals.
- We do not minimize or dismiss real abuse or safety concerns.
- We do not accept monetary donations.
- We do not exist to control families or interfere in private decision-making.
This movement focuses on systems and incentives, not scapegoats. Its purpose is reform, not retribution.
Who Participates
This is a people-powered effort. Participants include:
- Parents and caregivers who have experienced prolonged family court delays
- Educators who see the impact of instability on children
- Clinicians and child-development professionals
- Community members who believe children’s wellbeing must come first
Participation does not require agreement on every issue — only shared commitment to the principle that children’s developmental health outweighs administrative convenience.
How to Get Involved
Reform happens when people engage the right institutions, in the right ways, with clarity and respect.
Advocate for Better Process
Contact your legislators: House • Senate
Engage the Judicial Branch on Administration
Maine Judicial Branch • Supreme Judicial Court
Contact the Judicial Branch (Administrative & Rulemaking)
Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court
205 Newbury Street, Room 139
Portland, ME 04101-4125
Phone: (207) 822-4146
Contact the Governor’s Office on Capacity and Coordination
Office of the Governor – Contact
Participate in the Advocacy Community
- Volunteer: Support families through peer assistance, organization, or outreach
- Share Your Experience: Help make systemic delay visible through structured, confidential storytelling
- Attend Listening Sessions: Join community conversations focused on understanding harm and identifying solutions
Participation is voluntary, unpaid, and grounded in mutual respect.
By the Numbers
Why This Matters
Children experience time differently than adults. A year of delay in an administrative system is not equivalent to a year in a child’s life. Developmental windows close. Attachments form or fracture. Educational trajectories shift. Emotional harm compounds.
When court processes involving custody, safety, education, or stability are delayed for months or years, the harm does not pause. Childhood does not pause.
About the Founder
The full founder statement is on the Founder page.