Pathways to Success Program Participant Helps Change MO Job Access Laws

Henry Mikel, Connections to Success Pathways to Success Program Alum

COLUMBIA, MO – In the summer of 2021, the Missouri state law preventing individuals with felony convictions from working jobs that involved selling alcohol and/or lottery tickets, was changed. Henry Mikel, an 2021 alum of the Connections to Success Pathways to Success Program, was a part of helping make that change happen.

“My heart is just so happy now,” Henry said, “Being able to help change that law, I’m just doing the next right thing.”

Henry, who openly shares that he took wrong turns in life; drinking, doing, and selling drugs which resulted in serving time in prison. He knows firsthand what it’s like trying to find employment and building a life as a convicted felon.

“We struggle with getting jobs. A lot of people look at us like we’re just bad people, and not everybody that gets in trouble wants to stay in trouble,” Henry said.

After getting out of prison, Henry went through rehab three times, decided to give up his house, and move into in2Action in Columbia, MO to fully clean up his life overall.

in2Action Founder and Executive Director Dan Hanneken reached out to Henry about the law change effort underway in Missouri, to help felons have the opportunity to obtain jobs that involved selling alcohol or lottery tickets, i.e., working at a gas station or supermarket. Dan asked Mikel if he was interested in helping, by publicly sharing his story with the legal and political teams doing that work. Henry did and has personally benefited from this law change by gaining employment at a convenience store.

Through in2Action Henry heard about Connections to Success Pathways to Success Program and completed its Personal and Professional Development Training class. “The facilitators help us prepare to step out in the world. They prepared me for a lot of things that changed my life.”

“I’m more self-confident and know that I can go out here and be just a normal person in society. I don’t have to worry about going out on these streets and trying to find a hustle. I can live the right way that I’m supposed to, and [be] a father, or brother, or husband,” he said.

Interested in the CtS Pathways to Success program for yourself, or someone else you know? Click here to submit your interest, and learn more about our program.

By: Sylvia Petty, Connections to Success – Marketing and Communications Manager