Retells the trials and travails of immigrant families who overcome adversity and relates the supports available to them through the American child-welfare system and how they can obtain them. Story subjects include an immigrant mother who raises a child alone after separating from the child’s father, despite being limited in employment and mobility options; a family that gets help from a nonprofit group in challenging an abusive landlord; a mother who transfers her daughter from an underperforming school to a high-performing one; a mother who finds support network and legal assistance to stop her ex-husband’s abusive behaviors and secure child support from him; and a girl who builds familial connections in a local church community to supplant her strained relations with her cruel and negligent mother. Fears of hostile legal climates prevent many immigrants from seeking support services. Immigrants must make efforts to adapt parenting methods, marital relations, and parent-child interactions as they transition from cultures where wives are subordinate to husbands and parents beat children to the American culture in which women are equals and children are raised with kindness. A how-to guide is included on rights and proper conduct to assume while under investigation by child protection services.
