Join our Smart Sentencing Coalition

Empower Missouri has a long history of fighting for criminal justice reform. Over the decades, we have been successful in many reform efforts. Most recently in 2018, Empower Missouri was an instrumental partner in the effort to Raise the Age: keeping 17 year old juvenile offenders out of our adult correctional institutions. To continue our reform efforts, Empower Missouri spearheaded the creation of the Smart Sentencing Coalition. A coalition comprised of organizations and individuals all working towards a Missouri that is smarter on crime instead of tough on crime. Use this form to sign-up with our Smart Sentencing Coalition.

Raise the Age – Take Action

We're waiting for just the right time to engage advocates and coalition members to contact your state representatives just in time for a floor vote. You can check back to this page for that action alert or email christine@empowermissouri.org to be on our email blast. Learn more on this important issue at www.raisetheage.com.

Support the Endowment

Call for Clean Budget

Invite Members to Participate in November 17 “Twitter Storm” at 1 p.m. Empower Missouri and the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) have joined the Clean Budget Coalition—a group of more than 200 organizations—to urge Congress and the White House to adopt a “clean budget.” We ask them to reject harmful policy riders that could prevent lawmakers from enacting a final full-year spending package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017. Whenever Congress uses a Continuing Resolution to fund essential programs, it puts vital investments like affordable housing, healthcare, and nutrition programs at risk. What is a policy rider? A rider is an additional…

Our Homes, Our Voices Week of Action

May 1, 2018 - May 8, 2018 Between May 1 and May 8, Empower Missouri and our housing allies across the state are joining the National Low Income Housing Coalition for Our Homes, Our Voices, a week of coordinated national action, demanding greater federal investments in affordable rental homes. The lack of affordable housing is a national crisis. Millions of people, many of them with part- or full-time employment, do not have an affordable place to call home. At least half a million people are living on the street, in shelters, or in their cars on any given night, washing…

With you, we can accomplish anything! Become a Supporter

Our accomplishments so far in our second century as Missouri’s voice for social justice:  Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City Mental Health Parity legislation Quality Jobs Act (Enactment and Expansion) State Minimum Wage Increase Department of Corrections Reforms: Visitation Policy Improvements Sentencing Reforms Waiver of First 90 Days of Intervention Fee Prevented Major Increase in Electric Rates Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance With you, we can accomplish anything! Donate to Empower Missouri!

Farm Bill Call-In Day

The Farm Bill is a massive multi-year law that governs a complex array of agricultural and food programs. Farm commodity price and income supports, agricultural conservation, farm credit, trade, research, rural development, bioenergy, foreign food aid, and domestic nutrition assistance are the main topics contained in the Farm Bill. About 80% of its funding is devoted to nutrition programs, especially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly known as food stamps) so it is a priority area of concern for Empower Missouri with our focus on access to basic human needs.   The Farm Bill is normally reauthorized every five…

Organizational Sign-ons to Save SNAP

This page/form is for organizations. If you wish to take action as an individual, click here.

Individual Advocates to Save SNAP

This page/form is for individuals to contact their representative and senator. You will have the ability to customize your message as you click through the form. If you wish to and have the authority to sign-on as an organization, click here.

Empower Change on this #GivingTuesday

Members and Allies, The Thanksgiving Holiday is time to remember our connections – people, places, and events that have benefited our lives. This year my Thanksgiving had a “prequel” – the vacation trip that my wife Dorothy and I took to Selma and Montgomery, AL in October. At a time in U.S. history when injustice and cruelty are very visible, Dorothy and I needed inspiration. We started at the excellent National Parks Service Interpretive Center located next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There we followed the historical path from the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson to the beating of John Lewis and other protestors…

Our Homes, Our Voices: the National Week of Housing Advocacy

As state partner with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Empower Missouri’s Affordable Housing and Homelessness Task Force is participating in Our Homes, Our Voices: the National Week of Housing Advocacy from July 22-29. We started preparing for this at our June 14th meeting, recognizing that the House Budget Committee would be preparing to debate its budget blueprint for FY18 and tax reform in July. As anticipated, the details were released on July 19. Here is a summary of some of our deepest concerns from budget and tax information put forward by the Trump Administration for the next ten year…

Tell Secretary Carson and Congress that President Trump’s budget is unacceptable

The National Low Income Housing Coalition, Empower Missouri's national partner, has asked us to share with you that HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson will testify before the Senate Appropriations Transportation and HUD (THUD) Subcommittee on June 7 at 2:30 pm ET (1:30 Central) on the administration's FY18 budget. The president's budget proposes to slash federal investments in affordable housing at HUD by 15%, or $7.4 billion, compared to FY17. If enacted, more than 250,000 people could lose their housing vouchers. The budget would also impose punitive measures that would jeopardize family stability -- increasing the financial burdens they face through higher rents…

#ProtectOurCare Action Alert to Save Medicaid

The Guiding Principles of Empower Missouri begin with this phrase: “All people in Missouri should have true access to quality health care….” Given that this right is so foundational to us, we are gravely alarmed by proposals at the state and federal levels – to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to establish block grants or spending caps within Medicaid, or to in other waysradically constrict access to affordable care for millions of Americans. FEDERAL LEVEL Please contact your U.S. Senator and Congressional today (calls preferred) to say “Do not repeal the Affordable Care Act without providing an affordable high quality alternative to serve the needs of my…

Right to Work (for Less) Bill Threatens Security of Missouri Families

The Missouri Senate is expected to debate so-called “Right to Work” (RTW) during the week of January 23. Gov. Eric Greitens highlighted Right to Work at the beginning of his first State of the State address on January 17. (Read a full transcript at: https://governor.mo.gov/news/speeches/2017-state-state-address.) Despite Gov. Greitens’ claims that RTW is needed for Missouri to compete with surrounding states for jobs, there is little evidence that this is truly a priority for company owners. According to an article by David Nicklaus of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on January 22, executives did not list RTW in their top ten answers when asked what…

National Day of Action 11/29/16

Empower Missouri joins Missouri Jobs with Justice, Stand Up KC, and the Fight for $15 in support of the 64 million hardworking Americans who make far too little to secure basic human needs. We reject the politics of divisiveness that tears America apart by race, religion, ethnicity and gender. That's why this Tuesday, November 29th, we're joining tens of thousands of workers to send a clear message that we won't back down. Join us in St. Louis on November 29th: 6:00 AM - Corner of Tucker St. and Carr St 11:30 AM - Airport Action departing 5585 Pershing Ave, STL…

2016 Call for Membership

Dear Justice Advocates, Our nation has recently come through a long and tumultuous election season. People of every party identification were saddened, angered, and shocked as campaign statements were made that were undeniably racist, sexist, Islamaphobic, and insulting toward people with disabilities – to name a few concerns. We are a deeply divided state and nation, standing on the edge of an uncertain future. Your Empower Missouri Board of Directors and staff have been wondering, like you, “what can we do to grow the social justice movement that is so needed in this time?” So we come to you today…

Help us reach our goal!

Some of Empower Missouri’s most effective social justice advocates came to our organization by way of participation in a Student Advocacy Day, a student chapter, or an internship. Two special needs are approaching: We have a Public Policy Intern who will work with us in fall and spring for 450 hours (for which we are thankful!), and some students will apply for reduced registration rates for our annual conference October 6 and 7 in Kansas City. Our Fr. Bill Hutchison Student Empowerment Fund provides a way to cover these costs, but our 2015 conference and a stipend for our Spring…

Stop the Payday Loan Debt Trap

Empower Missouri has been fighting the debt trap of predatory lending for several years, testifying in hearings of the General Assembly and even participating in a petition campaign for a ballot initiative. Unfortunately  that failed despite the more than 200,000 signatures that we helped gather when the Payday Loan industry used their deep pockets to tie us up in a legal challenge. Now we have a chance to influence payday lending reform through a national field hearing of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in Kansas City on Thursday, June 2. You may recall that the CFPB was proposed by…

Using Your Vote to Stop Hunger in 2016

Join our National partner the Food Research and Action Center for one of their following webinars. Register Now for FRAC’s Hunger and the 2016 Election Webinar Series With the election season ramping up, there are many permissible activities that 501(c)(3) nonprofits can undertake to elevate the issue of hunger in America among candidates and voters and help families struggling with hunger exercise their right to vote. Increasing Voter Registration Opportunities Tuesday, June 7th, 2-3 p.m. EDT Looking for feasible steps that your organization can take to support voter registration opportunities for disenfranchised, low-income voters? Join us to learn about the…

Legislative Update Week of March 6, 2016

Empower Missouri’s mission is to advocate for the well-being of all Missourians through civic leadership, education, and research. If you are on our mailing list, you are somewhere along the civic leadership continuum – a new advocate, someone who has gained some skills and is anxious to learn more, or you may be a veteran who has been speaking up for social justice for decades. Wherever you are on the advocacy journey, this week there is a job for you. First, here are items that relate to our 2017 priorities so directly that we ask you to take immediate and…

Child Nutrition Reauthorization Action Alert

We join our Friends at the Food Research and Action Center asking for your action: Congressional Countdown: CNR Action Needed There’s a lot going on as Congress races toward adjournment next week. Keep reading for the latest from Capitol Hill, including updates on the omnibus spending bill and tax extenders, and continued action for a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR). First, a short term Continuing Resolution (CR) is currently in place to keep the government funded and operating through December 16, while Congress debates an omnibus spending bill. Ideological policy provisions, or riders, are delaying efforts to pass a clean spending…

Hit a Home Run for Worker Justice

It's September in Missouri, and our thoughts turn to the baseball pennant races - and to Veto Session in Jefferson City. The annual veto session is September 16 this year, and local control and workers' rights are under attack. Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, vetoed 18 bills this year. Republican supermajorities already overrode on two of them during the regular legislative session that ended on May 15. Three of the remaining bills particularly focus on worker justice: Out-of-state corporate interests are pushing for an override of the veto on “right-to-work” legislation, House Bill 116. However, the bill failed to achieve a veto-proof…

National Housing Fund Needed

The Fiscal Year 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee on May 13th proposed to eliminate all of the 2016 funding for the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF). Empower Missouri strongly supports the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) and has written a letter to Sen. Roy Blunt as a member of the Senate THUD Subcommittee, asking him to reject any effort to reduce, divert, or eliminate funding from this important housing development program. The NHTF is the only federal program that provides new money specifically to expand the supply of rental housing…

Get Rid of Legislative Sausage

The final two weeks of Legislative Session is always a time of great danger. Many legislators offer amendments that work against health and stability in local communities, and the volume of language pressing relentlessly through what has been called “the legislative sausage grinder” means that some of these bad ideas are able to “sneak through.” Empower Missouri members and allies must be on high alert through May 15 at 6 p.m.   Here are some actions we need you to take immediately to stop very bad ideas:   Call or email your Missouri House member TODAY in opposition to HB…

Empower Missouri Applauds Governor’s Veto of Senate Bill 24

Ask Your House and Senate Members to Sustain the Veto Speaking at Operation Breakthrough, a child care center in Kansas City that serves more than 400 children weekly, Gov. Jay Nixon today announced his veto of Senate Bill 24. We applaud him for that action and call on the Missouri General Assembly to sustain his veto. Our previous Action Alerts have spelled out the dangers in Senate Bill 24: It shortens the lifetime limit for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) by 25%. Initially more than 6300 children will lose benefits this bill goes into effect, and over time that…