ArchCity’s Media and Policy Advocacy work is grounded in our mission and prioritizes:
- centering the challenges ArchCity clients and their families face within a historic and systemic context
- elevating the voices of our clients who have been impacted by systemic racist, social and economic oppression
- maintaining a platform for our clients to speak about their lived experiences
- exposing injustice
- countering the misrepresentation and distortion of poor people and people of color in mainstream media narratives
- impacting community conversation on issues impacting our region
- providing recommendations for direct and systemic change
- re-imagining public safety
Podcast: UNDER THE ARCH
ArchCity Defenders and Action St. Louis present the premiere collaborative podcast, “Under The Arch.” Your hosts Blake Strode, Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders, and Kayla Reed, Director of Action St. Louis, explore the issues facing our community and the people working to transform them. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and follow “Under the Arch” on social media for regular updates!
MEDIA CAMPAIGNS & EVENTS
Pro Se STL
ArchCity Defenders has developed five ‘know your rights’ guides under our “Pro Se STL” series. They include basic tools for people to defend and advocate for themselves throughout various interactions with police, courts, and jails within the region’s criminal legal system. Visit prosestl.org to download or print:
- A Guide to Knowing Your Rights With the Police and Getting Out of Jail (2018, updated in 2023)
- A Guide to Representing Yourself in St. Louis Municipal Courts (2018, updated in 2023)
- A Guide to Representing Yourself When Facing Eviction (2021)
- A Guide for Renters Finding and Moving into Housing in Missouri (2024)
- A Guide to Expunging Your Criminal Record in Missouri (2024)
#ProSeSTL guides are designed to support ongoing efforts to end the direct and systemic oppression of poor people and people of color.
POLICY PUBLICATIONS
2014: ArchCity Defenders: Municipal Courts White Paper
2015: It’s Not Just Ferguson: Missouri Supreme Court Should Consolidate the Municipal Court System
2021: Death by the State: Police Killings and Jail Deaths in St. Louis 2009-2019
2023: In Her Words: The Impact of Fatal State Violence on Black Women and Women of Color Left Behind
2024: In the Rearview Mirror: St. Louis’ Municipal Courts After a Decade of Reform and Regress
Re-Imagining Public Safety Resources
- 2017: Overpoliced and Underserved: Uncovering St. Louis City’s Priorities through the Budget
- 2018: A Plan to Close the Workhouse and Promote A New Vision for St. Louis
- 2020: Close the Workhouse: A Plan and a Vision
- 2020: COVID-19 Response Letter to Public Officials
- 2020: Defund the Police STL: An Illustrated Guide to Re-envisioning Public Safety
- 2022-2024 Defund. Re-envision. Transform. Budget Toolkits
Written in collaboration
- 2019: Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide (with Health Equity Works and community partners)
- 2019: Environmental Racism in St. Louis