EPOCA

In the summer of 2004, a handful of hard-working former prisoners in Worcester, MA stopped accepting the life-sentence of humiliation, unemployment, and rootlessness that we had been assigned. Beginning with a few conversations, one-on-one and in small groups, we charted a course for an organization to build shared power and leadership; a campaign to break the eternal bonds of Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI); and a movement to lead our community towards true justice. Today, the organization is powerful, the campaign is unstoppable, and the movement is taking shape.

Over the last six years, EPOCA has steadily grown in membership, influence and vision. Today, we are a strong, diverse team of 226 members working with thousands of allies every day to win structural victories that improve our families’ lives.

Although we are well known for our leadership in the campaign to win statewide CORI reform, and for winning the nation’s most effective City Ordinance dealing with criminal records, we are most proud of how our work changes the nature of who has power and how decisions are made. For example, our city ordinance ran into extreme opposition from Worcester’s City Manager, who is not democratically elected. Therefore, we had great opportunities to teach democracy to “power players” in our city, and to enforce a more inclusive process.