Our Story
We Were Built for This Moment.
W.R.I.S.E. didn't start with a plan. It started with a conviction that justice-impacted women deserve more than the system has ever given them.
Who We Are
A Place of Purpose
W.R.I.S.E., Women Reentering Into Stability and Empowerment, is a Missouri-based nonprofit committed to ensuring that every woman returning home from incarceration has a safe place to land, the support to heal, and the opportunity to lead.
Our first transitional home, The Hamer House, is opening in St. Louis as a member of the SAFE Housing Network, in partnership with A New Way of Life Reentry Project, founded by Ms. Susan Burton. We stand on that lineage and bring Missouri's voice to it.
W.R.I.S.E. is a fiscally sponsored project of the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM).
SAFE Housing Network Member
Part of a national lineage of women-led reentry homes built on the model of A New Way of Life Reentry Project, founded by Ms. Susan Burton.
Our Mission
W.R.I.S.E. exists to ensure that every woman returning home from incarceration in Missouri has a safe place to land, the support to heal, and the opportunity to lead.
Our Vision
A Missouri where no woman returns from incarceration without a home, a community, and a future — where justice-impacted women are recognized not as problems to be managed, but as leaders to be supported.
"She did not survive her incarceration to be quiet. She survived it to lead."On Fannie Lou Hamer, for whom our first home is named
Our Leadership
The Women Behind the Work
W.R.I.S.E. is led by women who are deeply committed to justice, healing, and the belief that lived experience is the most powerful kind of leadership.
Cheri Blackmon
Founder & Executive Director
Cheri Blackmon is a St. Louis native, born and raised on the South Side, with roots that stretch between St. Louis and Kansas City. Her upbringing gave her an early and intimate understanding of the communities that bear the greatest weight of systemic inequality, and it is that understanding that has shaped every chapter of her life's work.
Cheri's connection to the criminal justice system is personal and lived. She has moved through it, navigated its consequences, and watched firsthand what it does to women, families, and communities when there is no safety net on the other side. That experience is not a footnote to her work. It is the foundation of it.
Cheri has spent more than a decade building power at the intersection of nonprofit leadership, public policy, and civic engagement. She began her career leading organizational operations, grant development, and strategic planning at New Reflections East, Inc. She went on to serve as a Legislative Aide for the Georgia House of Representatives and as a Field and Regional Organizer across Georgia and South Carolina, designing community programs and leading voter mobilization efforts in rural and underrepresented communities. Most recently, as Lead Regional Organizer at Fair Count, Inc., she built coalitions, advanced voting rights, and led civic engagement strategy across the South.
Cheri holds a Bachelor of Political Science and a Master of Public Administration in Public Management, both from Albany State University, a proud HBCU. She is currently a graduate student in Political Science at Howard University and plans to continue on to earn her PhD, driven by a commitment to producing scholarship that centers the voices and lived experiences of justice-impacted people.
Cheri is a mother of three. She has a son and two daughters who are her greatest motivation and the reason she refuses to build anything less than something lasting. She founded W.R.I.S.E. for every woman who has come home and found nothing waiting for her, and for every child who deserved to have their mother whole.
B.A. Political Science, Albany State University
M.P.A., Albany State University
M.P.S. Candidate, Howard University
Nonprofit Leader & Civic Organizer
Social Justice Advocate
DM
Photo Coming Soon
Dazie McCall
Co-Founder & Chief Program Officer
Dazie McCall is the operational and programmatic heart of W.R.I.S.E. Her nursing background grounds W.R.I.S.E.'s clinical approach to health and wellness, and she shapes every program, partnership, and daily operation that turns our mission into lived reality for women across Missouri.
Full bio coming soon.
What We Stand For
Our Core Values
These are the commitments that guide every decision we make, every partnership we form, and every woman we serve.
Dignity First
Every woman deserves respect, safety, and the opportunity to rebuild her life with pride and purpose.
Racial Equity & Justice
Confronting and dismantling the racial inequities that drive mass incarceration and block reentry.
Lived Experience Leadership
Those most impacted by systems should lead the solutions, not be left out of them.
Empowerment Through Action
Equipping women with skills, resources, and civic tools to lead real change in their communities.
Collective Care
Healing happens in community. We center connection, peer support, and sisterhood.
Systems Change
We move beyond services to transform the policies and structures that create barriers to housing, healing, and opportunity.
A Member of the SAFE Housing Network
W.R.I.S.E. operates as a member of the SAFE Housing Network, the national network of reentry homes for justice-impacted women founded on the model pioneered by Ms. Susan Burton and A New Way of Life Reentry Project in Los Angeles.
The SAFE Network has proven, for more than two decades, that women who are housed safely, supported consistently, and trusted fully rebuild their lives and transform their communities.
The Hamer House is Missouri's chapter in that story.
Our Fiscal Sponsor
Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement
W.R.I.S.E. is a fiscally sponsored project of FICPFM, an organization led by and for formerly incarcerated people and their families. Our partnership with FICPFM reflects our shared commitment to centering lived experience in every aspect of our work.
All charitable contributions to W.R.I.S.E. are made through FICPFM and are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
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Whether you donate, volunteer, partner, or simply share our story, every action helps more women rise across Missouri.