Our Vision

A Home for Movement is more than a tagline. It ’s a promise.

A promise to create a permanent home in the very communities where we’ve organized for justice. A promise to build a space for the people, where advocacy is accessible and organizing is sustained. A promise to ensure that North St. Louis is not an afterthought, but the center of building power for everyday St. Louisans.

Located in the heart of North St. Louis, the Northside Movement Center (NMC) will be a home for movement, a vibrant, community-rooted space where advocacy, organizing, and direct service come together under one roof. Anchored by Action St. Louis and ArchCity Defenders, two of the region’s leading justice organizations, the Center will house:

  • Community organizing and meeting spaces where residents and grassroot groups can plan, build, and grow together.

  • Holistic legal support and direct service to defend and support the people of North St. Louis and the broader St. Louis Community.

  • Training and education facilities for leadership development, civic engagement, and movement-building workshops.

  • Public gathering spaces for art, culture, and joy because resistance also requires rest, creativity, and healing.

This is more than acquiring a property or a renovation project; it’s an act of reclamation. We are reclaiming space for our people. Reclaiming our right to gather. Reclaiming our future.

The Northside Movement Center represents a once-in-a-generation investment in the physical infrastructure for power and transformation in St. Louis. It’s where we will defend, dream, and build the future our communities deserve, together.

We’ve spent the last decade fighting for justice in courtrooms, at city halls, and in the streets. Now, we’re building a foundation for the next decade — a permanent home for the work that transforms lives and strengthens communities.

North City is OUR North Star. This is your invitation to be part of that legacy.

For a Thriving North St. Louis.

North St. Louis has long been the moral and cultural center of St. Louis, a historic home of Black resilience, leadership, and imagination. Yet, it has faced generations of intentional disinvestment, creating a landscape of underutilized buildings and under-resourced communities.

The Northside Movement Center is an intentional response to that legacy.

By locating in North St. Louis, we are investing not only in a building, but in the people and places that have sustained the city’s freedom struggles for generations. We are saying that the future of our work must be rooted in the North, where it has the potential to transform all of St. Louis.

 

Our Building Partners

The building was purchased by the Northside Center for Power and Transformation, an entity established by ArchCity Defenders and Action St. Louis, in early 2025, for $2.9 million. Two Black-owned local businesses, KAI Enterprises and Construction Management Partners (CMP), have led customized renovations of the facility. ArchCity Defenders and Action St. Louis also worked with Black-owned consulting firm Key Strategic Group in an earlier phase of the project. From the initial programming to site selection and completion, Trivers has led the architectural services for the project. The facility’s name, the Northside Movement Center, is reflective of the nonprofit entity that will manage daily operations.

Located in the North Pointe neighborhood, the Northside Movement Center offers individual and shared office space for clients to meet with attorneys, paralegals, and social workers; for groups to meet with organizers for planning, education, and community-building; and for events and gatherings. The building, located at 5939 Goodfellow Boulevard, previously served as a family center for the New Northside Missionary Baptist Church for over twenty years.