STL Reentry Collective

Founded in July 2020, STL Reentry Collective coordinated a mutual aid fund for formerly incarcerated people in St. Louis and currently manage an online and print resource guide for formerly incarcerated people transitioning back to St Louis that includes a collection of the most up-to-date and reliable support services available.

In July 2020, a group of formerly incarcerated people and allies launched a mutual aid fund for justice-involved people transitioning from incarceration to the St. Louis community. The founders had met while working for a college in prison program in St. Louis. Seeing firsthand the tremendous obstacles that formerly incarcerated individuals face after their release—including legal forms of discrimination in housing and social service benefits—and the lack of dedicated resources for this population, the group set out to address some of the many gaps in support.

The group’s first initiative, the STL Reentry Fund, is a mutual aid fund that aims to support formerly incarcerated people in St. Louis through direct cash assistance. Unlike most social service agencies and non-profit organizations, the STL Reentry Fund can provide funds for individuals to take care of urgent and often unexpected expenses that would not otherwise be covered and that are much harder to find for justice-involved folks. In Missouri, for example, even the resources of “last resort” tied to the social safety net—including SNAP benefits—are not available to people with some kinds of felony convictions.