L.A. PARENT Feature on 10 years of Parenting for Liberation
Published October 19, 2026
By Ivory Rose Parnell-Chambeshi
https://www.laparent.com/parenting-for-liberation-10-years/
Earlier this year, I watched Trina Greene survey a venue decorated with colorful balloons and tables topped with framed images and words from Black feminists such as Alice Walker and bell hooks as she prepared for Parenting for Liberation’s Black Futures Month Celebration.
At the event, Black Parent Innovation Lab Fellows presented innovations they had developed over a six-month period with Parenting for Liberation’s support, which included a design retreat, coaching and $5,000 to identify solutions to challenges facing Black families. This was a major feat that had Greene, who founded Parenting for Liberation (P4L) in 2016, beaming with pride.
Months later, as she was in the throes of preparing for P4L’s 10-year anniversary celebration, “HOMEPLACE: Home as a Site of Love & Resistance for Black Families,” Greene reflected on the organization’s mission to help Black parents heal from intergenerational trauma, resist systemic oppression and cultivate joy. While there is much to celebrate, including P4L’s evolution from a virtual platform into programs serving parents, caregivers and youth, the road ahead is long. And P4L’s work has become increasingly personal for Greene as her own son, now 17, approaches adulthood.
How do you balance Black family joy while grappling with heartbreaking headlines?
Girl, I don’t know, how do you? [Laughter] I disconnect. I seek spaces that allow us to feel free. I also let my kids laugh and tease me — their favorite pastime! My son and I do activities like a local flotation studio to allow our minds and bodies to reset. Despite the struggles, the joy that lives within Blackness itself sustains me.
Black Parent Innovation Lab fellows and families.
How did Parenting for Liberation evolve from a virtual platform and book into a caregiver and youth program reaching 10,000 families?
We’re parent-driven, and we’ve evolved based on our stakeholders’ feedback from conversations and surveys. We always strive to show up for what the community needs.
Innovation is at our core and in my leadership approach. We started as parent-specific due to my past work as a youth organizer where trainings excluded parents. I wanted to create a space that would help parents be a life raft for children and shift from “tough love” or post-traumatic, slave-syndrome parenting to what we call Black gentle parenting or liberatory parenting. We also evolved to define “parent” or “caregiver” expansively because many Black families include non-biological caregivers and those beyond gender binaries.
Why did you choose an art exhibition and in-person programs to celebrate 10 years?
I wanted to celebrate Black families’ complexity, beauty and resilience and subvert the [stereotypical] narratives. I didn’t want a stuffy gala; I wanted a commemoration that allows our community to not only honor the past via art and the documentary we created, but also to inform P4L’s future.
Also, Black folks in L.A. face widespread displacement — including P4L, which lost our Compton office. With the exhibition, I wanted a place to call home — for our families to come and just be.
What parallels (or divergences) have you experienced in 10 years of raising your son and running P4L?
Early on, I was fearful and clung to my baby and P4L. Now, my son is 17, drives and is independent. I have to trust that what I’ve instilled — honesty, power, agency, voice — lives in him wherever he is in the world. Similarly, I’ve grown from being a sole founder and staff member to having a team, and I’m learning to not hold P4L so tightly.
Though I’m less afraid, moments like Nolan Wells [the Black teen who was found dead this summer after a boating trip with white friends in Mississippi] and P4L’s future keep me up at night. With my son and P4L, I have pride andconcern about whether they will survive and thrive without me. Will my son succeed in college? Will there be another P4L co-parent or executive director?
The difference: P4L is still a kid; my baby is almost grown!
What is your greatest hope for Black children and parents?
I hope Black children have the full childhoods they deserve. They deserve peers who see them and don’t co-opt or demean their culture. They deserve love and to be treated as whole. They’re brilliant.
What is your greatest hope for Black children and parents?
I hope Black children have the full childhoods they deserve. They deserve peers who see them and don’t co-opt or demean their culture. They deserve love and to be treated as whole. They’re brilliant.
Exhibit Details
Exhibit: “HOMEPLACE: Home as a Site of Love & Resistance for Black Families” is the art exhibition and anniversary celebration created to celebrate Black families’ complexity, beauty and resilience.
Location: offTOP Design
Address: 2712 W. 54th St., Los Angeles
Dates: Open through Nov. 27
More information: Visit parentingforliberation.org.