“Parents who use drugs, we're at the bottom of the totem pole.”We explore what real safety looks like for families when a parent uses substances. Stigma, shame, and anti-Blackness shape the way families are treated by the family policing system, but community centered care can save lives and families. Together, we imagine a world where families impacted by substance use are met with compassion, resources, and community support rather than punishment and surveillance.About Our Guest: Dinah Ortiz has been working on behalf of people who use drugs and pregnant and parenting people for over two decades. She has spent much of that time at a Well renowned holistic public defense organization as a parent advocate, supervisor, trainer for incoming Attorneys pre bar, Social workers and as an internal thought leader on harm reduction. She serves as a board member for the North Carolina Survivors Union (NCSU) and is a current member of the leadership team for the National Survivors’ Union (NSU). She has sat on advisory boards for work supporting federal rural overdose response grantees, and currently for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine IMPOWR-me project as a board member. Coming out of direct parent representation for over a decade Dinah slowly came to understand there was something missing in the representation of marginalized parents who use drugs (our voice.) She has appeared on hundreds of panels globally sharing the challenges created by the child regulation system and its disproportionate targeting of marginalized communities and communities of color. She helped adapt and develop a storytelling model for people who use drugs—helping people work through their own experiences so there is space for reflection where stigma has been internalized, as well as equipping people to share their stories to disrupt larger narratives.Episode Notes: Support the work of upEND: upendmovement.org/donateEpisode Transcript: upendmovement.org/podcast/episode304/ Read “Reclaiming Safety for Children Whose Parents Use Substances” by Kassandra Frederique, Dinah Ortiz, and Mark Z. Dinah mentions a segment about moms using marijuana on the Tyra Banks show. Learn more about the North Carolina Survivor’s Union and the National Survivor’s Union. Dinah mentions Movement for Family Power’s Movement Map.