Bi-weekly call to discuss MO HIV Justice Coalition activities. This meeting will be happening via Zoom Meetings. Please email [email protected] to request the link to the meeting.Read More

Our HIV Coalition will be meeting to discuss priorities and plans moving forward. Lunch will be provided for all. Transportation support is available! The RSVP form includes space for folks residing outside of STL to indicate travel needs– for any needs not reflected, please contact me directly.Read More

In last week’s Perspective, we talked about the roadblocks our HIV policy modernization bill hit and how we’ll persist and organize for future success. Today, though, we want to tell you about a few truly unmistakable wins that Empower Missouri saw this week.Read More

Reformed theologian and ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr (born in Wright City, MO in 1892) began sharing a prayer in 1934 that was published in this form in 1951: ….give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the...Read More

The House Committee Substitute (HCS) of House Bills 167 & 166 was debated on the House floor on Tuesday afternoon. You know from our Weekly Perspective and Call to Action last Friday that the version voted out of committee needed some significant improvements. The floor debate was an opportunity to hear several amendments offered, get...Read More

If you follow our work, you are likely aware that one of our policy priorities this year is to modernize Missouri’s outdated, medically inaccurate, stigmatizing HIV-specific criminal codes. You may remember a Weekly Perspective from the first week of February after an energizing committee hearing. If you haven’t paid that close of attention because you feel like...Read More

Remembering, Commemorating, and Memorializing: An Interdenominational Prayer Breakfast Honoring the Life of Robert Rayford and Recognizing Caregivers, Service Providers, and People Affected by HIV/AIDS Hosted by The Griot in partnership with Empower Missouri and the Missouri Foundation for Health. Robert Rayford, an African American teenager from St. Louis, passed away in May 1969 of causes...Read More

I really couldn’t have imagined the hearing going any better. The room was packed, standing-room-only in the gallery, nearly every one of the 19 (!) committee members were present. A Republican from the rural bootheel sat next to a Democrat from the big city of St. Louis, and together Reps. Holly Rehder and Tracy McCreery...Read More