Submitted by Maggie O’Donnell, Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) One in three Americans is burdened by some form of an old criminal record. Last week marked the start of Second Chance Month, during which we recognize the critical need to address the barriers that continue to face...Read More

Date: March 26, 2024To: Chairman Luetkemeyer and Members, Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence CommitteeFrom: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director, Empower MissouriRe: SB 763 and SB 1161 As the largest and oldest anti-poverty advocacy agency in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri residents through advocacy. Since our...Read More

Clean Slate legislation has been filed in Missouri’s  house and senate, the result of a concerted push by advocates around the state, including Empower Missouri, who believe that the time is right for automatic record sealing. Automatic expungement means that anyone who qualifies to have their record sealed* would receive it automatically, without having to...Read More

Empower Missouri started over 100 years ago as an annual conference, making the job of planning and executing our annual Anti-Poverty Summit even more significant. Ask any nonprofit staff and they’ll tell you that conference execution is no joke. I have to uplift our team and give them a round of applause: 2022’s return to...Read More

In just over two weeks, Missouri voters will head to polls for the midterm elections. In addition to voting for federal, state, and, in some cases, local leaders, Missouri voters will weigh in on four constitutional amendments. Three of these amendments were proposed by the Missouri legislature, and one, Amendment 3, was proposed by the...Read More

In 2018, I read Peter Temin’s book The Vanishing Middle Class. He got a lot of press coverage when the book was released, in large part because of his thesis that households who are working to escape poverty really need about 20 years without catastrophe. He theorized that on an individual level, it is sometimes...Read More

On Wednesday, May 11th, Empower Missouri, Criminal Justice Ministry, the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, Metropolitan Congregations United, the Missouri Catholic Conference, Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers and More2 joined together to host a discussion on the Clean Slate Initiative, featuring speakers Rabbi Doug Alpert, Tom Casey, Brandon Reid, Christine McDonald, and...Read More