Healing Through Organizing: Activism as a Path to Family Wellbeing with Mashai Small

Valerie sits down with Mashai Small—a former army sergeant, a mother, and member of the African National Women’s Organization leadership team. She’s also an organizer, abolitionist, and one of the leaders of the Black Mother’s March happening in Washington, DC on May 11th.

Part of the family well-being movement is the abolitionist perspective, which holds that the path to justice requires dismantling the parts of systems that harm and oppress people. And that we have to invest in communities to liberate families.

Mashai shares her journey from being an impacted parent to an organizer and activist fighting for the rights of families. She discusses the personal and community-based motivations behind her activism, including the systemic issues of racial inequity. Mashai shares what it means to organize in this space, the significance of the upcoming Black Mothers March, and the fight to keep Black families together. Through her work, Mashai offers powerful lessons on how Black parents can advocate for themselves and their families while pushing for a more just and equitable child welfare system.