EX-incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) of Wisconsin

Year Founded: 2014

EXPO of Wisconsin is dedicated to supporting currently and formerly incarcerated people in recognizing their inherent dignity and value. The organization works to ensure they know they belong, that they come from and remain integral parts of the community. Through advocacy, leadership development, direct services, and peer support, EXPO creates opportunities for successful reentry and full participation in society, grounded in the conviction that its members belong and deserve to thrive.

EXPO of Wisconsin addresses reentry and justice system inequities through an integrated, peer-led continuum that combines direct services, systems change, and power building. The work begins by stabilizing the most urgent needs of people returning from incarceration, safe housing, income, health care, and connection, through the S.A.F.E. House, S.A.F.E. Family Apartments, reentry navigation, and Certified Peer Specialists with lived experience of incarceration, alongside workforce development that opens pathways into peer support and other credentialed careers.

 Beyond direct services, EXPO partners with corrections, courts, health systems, and workforce agencies to shift practices toward trauma-informed, peer-led models, and advocates against extended supervision, collateral consequences, and exclusionary regulations that drive reincarceration. Fellowships, peer leadership roles, and initiatives such as Engage, Educate, Empower build civic participation among justice-impacted people. 

Together, this work shifts mental models, from viewing justice-impacted people as problems to be managed to recognizing them as leaders, caregivers, workers, and change agents.

EXPO of Wisconsin traces its origins to 2000, when Voices Beyond Bars formed as a platform for formerly incarcerated people to advocate for justice reform and share their stories. In 2014, the work expanded statewide as EXPO, equipping justice-impacted people to lead reentry efforts and push for changes in policy and practice across Wisconsin. The organization launched its S.A.F.E. housing program in 2023, opening dignified housing for women returning home from incarceration. Today EXPO leads statewide campaigns to end mass incarceration and dismantle structural discrimination, while supporting thousands of people through reentry, peer support, workforce development, restorative justice circles, and voting rights advocacy.