For the hundreds of thousands of Missourians struggling to afford the basics — such as food, shelter, and medicine — cash income is vital to averting extreme economic hardship. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic downturn have made clear how much Missourians need cash for a variety of basic needs: rent...Read More

It is clear that major changes are coming with the November 3 election, but none of us is able to say with certainty exactly what those changes will be. We do know this, however. Action by informed social justice advocates will be as absolutely essential on November 4 as it is today. Individuals and organizations...Read More

Platinum Level Co-Sponsors: Registration for the Racial Equity Summit is free to all, thanks to a generous Platinum Level Co-Sponsorship from Maxine Clark and Bob Fox and the Deaconess Foundation. Maxine Clark and Bob Fox established the Clark-Fox Family Foundation in 2004 to promote regional growth and prosperity by lifting up those populations that have been...Read More

On September 10, the U.S. Senate took up and failed to pass a $650 billion package of relief for our nation of 331 million people, rocked to the core by the coronavirus pandemic and related economic downturn. This is a sliver of the $3.4 trillion in aid approved by the U.S. House in May and...Read More

It is no surprise to anyone I interact with, but I really love data. In college, I had a professor thank me for always coming back to an evidence base when making policy recommendations, a tendency which has served me well at Empower Missouri. I enjoy dissecting data and holding on to it, conceptualizing it...Read More

We were extremely disappointed when Gov. Parson announced on July 6 that he would be signing Senate Substitute for Senate Bill 600 (SB 600), legislation that enacts mandatory minimums and stacking of sentences and creates new classes of crimes.  We said so in a statewide press release, in a guest column in the St. Louis...Read More

We at Empower Missouri are extremely disappointed to learn that Gov. Parson plans to sign Senate Bill 600. This reverses the positive direction that his administration appeared to be heading in his 2019 State of the State Address. At that time Gov. Parson said: “As a former sheriff and law enforcement officer for over 22...Read More

Today’s report from Missouri’s State Auditor shows that Missouri is continuing to decline in the revenue strength needed to withstand stresses like the current COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn. It is time that legislators take a serious look at Missouri’s unfair, outdated and inadequate personal income tax system. When “the common good” is inadequately funded, our state is...Read More

Happy Juneteenth! Empower Missouri is among organizations that has begun a discussion about amending our personnel manual to create a paid staff holiday for Juneteenth. We have not adopted that policy yet, but the deliberative process is just one of the many ways that our staff and Board are attempting to fulfill the mandate of...Read More

Whether you have been part of the Empower Missouri advocacy network for a long time or just joined our mailing list this week, there has never been a more important time to be a social justice advocate. Our planet is rocked by three crises simultaneously that interact with each other with synergistic power: The novel...Read More