Who We Are

Just Making A Change for Families, better known as JMACforFamilies, is a non-profit organization working to dismantle the family policing system while investing in community support that keeps families together. We are a team of impacted people, social workers, advocates, and organizers working towards the ultimate goal of community supports in place of Government intervention. 

JMACforFamilies works towards this goal through legislative advocacy, storytelling and narrative change, and programming for people who have been directly impacted by the family policing system. We also lead the Parent Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a statewide coalition of impacted parents and young people, advocates, attorneys, social workers, and academics collaborating to effect systemic change.

Joyce McMillan is a thought leader, advocate, community organizer, educator, and the Founder and Executive Director of Just Making A Change for Families (JMACforFamilies).

Joyce’s mission is to remove systemic barriers in communities of color by bringing awareness to the racial disparities in systems where people of color are disproportionately affected. Her ultimate goal is to abolish systems of harm–especially the family policing system (or the so-called “child welfare system”)–while creating concrete community resources.

As the Founder of the Parent Legislative Action Network, Joyce leads a statewide coalition of impacted parents and young people, advocates, attorneys, social workers, and academics collaborating to effect systemic change in the family policing system. Joyce also currently serves on the board of the Women’s Prison Association and on the Advisory Committee for the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, where she holds a visiting fellowship. As a visiting fellow, Joyce explores ways to strengthen parent voices in child welfare and has led a series of public events where panelists discuss both problems and suggested solutions. 

Previously, Joyce led family engagement and advocacy efforts at Sinergia Inc, an organization that works with and to support people with disabilities and their families. Prior to Sinergia, she was the Program Director at the Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP), where she created a space for communities of color who have been traumatized by systemic injustices to learn about restorative practices. 

Joyce has served as a member of the NYC County Committee and a Supreme Court Judicial Delegate. She has also held fellowships with Law4Black Lives and the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. In 2021 she was recognized by City & State New York as a Nonprofit Power 100 Leader. In 2024, she was awarded the Trailblazer Award by Brooklyn Defender Services.

Joyce has lectured and spoken at Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Hunter College, Montclair University, CUNY Law School, Cornell University, Harlem Hospital, New York City Affairs at the New School, Williams College, and many other institutions. She has also appeared in various media interviews with outlets such as Al Jazeera, The New York Times, ABC Channel 7, The Imprint, ProPublica, and Politico.

Lina has been featured on multiple podcasts, featured on NPR, spoken at Minnesota State, on reproductive justice and adoption, spoken at the Colorado Suicide Prevention Commission, was a key note speaker at a Youth Suicide Symposium for the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention, a contributor in the Petrie Flom Center's Health, Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School Bill of Health Symposia on Adoption, Family Separation & Preservation and Reproductive Justice, presented at the BIPOC Adoptee Conference on abolition, and is a member of a Colombian Reparations Collective.