Joyce McMillan
Just Making A Change for Families New York, NY Award Year: 2023Joyce McMillan is a thought leader, advocate, activist, community organizer, and educator. She is Executive Director of Just Making A Change for Families (JMACForFamilies), a nonprofit working to abolish the current punitive child welfare system and to strengthen the systems of support that keep families and communities together. She is also the founder of the Parent Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a coalition of parents directly impacted by the child welfare system, attorneys, social workers and academia who are committed to reducing and ending the child welfare system harms and transforming the way society supports families. McMillan has led child welfare family engagement and advocacy efforts at Sinergia Inc. and at Child Welfare Organizing Project, where she educated the community about restorative practices to empower, affirm, transform and heal communities of color that have been traumatized by systemic injustices. She is an Advisory Committee member at The Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, where she has a visiting fellowship exploring ways to strengthen parent voices in child welfare.