Building second chances and stronger neighborhoods
A nonprofit rooted in lived experience and community leadership, building practical systems that promote safety, economic stability, and long-term opportunity for justice-impacted individuals, young people, and the neighborhoods they call home.
Our Mission
Do Moore Good is a West Philadelphia–based nonprofit that provides direct services to remove barriers for justice-impacted adults, engages youth in prevention-focused development, and strengthens neighborhoods through restorative justice and community stewardship. Rooted in lived experience and community leadership, DMG builds practical systems that promote safety, economic stability, and long-term opportunity.
Our Vision
We envision neighborhoods where justice-impacted individuals, young people, and long-time residents have the support, resources, and infrastructure needed to heal, contribute, and build stable, thriving communities.
Our Work
A full-spectrum approach to community wellbeing
DMG connects storytelling to direct service. The criminal justice system creates barriers that follow people long after they've served their time — and too often, the young people and neighborhoods around them become the next pipeline. DMG works on both ends: helping justice-impacted adults access record clearance and reclaim opportunity, engaging youth in prevention-focused development before those barriers take hold, and stewardarding the neighborhoods where all of this happens. Our programs are distinct but built from the same foundation: lived experience, community leadership, and the belief that reshaping systems is part of the work.
Restorative Justice
Pardon Us Campaign
Free pardon coaching and community-based record clearance for justice-impacted Pennsylvanians, because a past conviction shouldn't define someone's future.
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Youth Development
Philly S.A.F.E.
Weekly programming for young African American men in West Philadelphia, building the skills, mentors, and community they need before barriers take hold.
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Neighborhood Stewardship
Sansom St. Garden
Transforming a neglected lot into a community green space, building belonging, reducing blight, and preserving land in a rapidly changing neighborhood.
Learn more →How We Work
Guiding Principles
Community Engagement
We involve and empower community members to participate in the decisions and projects that directly affect their lives, not as recipients, but as leaders.
Exposure
We ensure that historically marginalized communities have opportunities to explore the world, feed their creativity, and build the vision needed to create meaningful change.
Investment
We provide resources that nourish and cultivate low-income communities, because generational wealth starts with believing in people and investing in them.
Neighborhood Responsibility
We facilitate projects that support healthy, safe communities, because the block you live on shapes your opportunities as much as anything else.
The Team
Meet the Team
Shuja Moore
Founder & Executive DirectorShuja Moore is an award-winning filmmaker and community advocate from West Philadelphia whose work sits at the intersection of storytelling, public engagement, and community infrastructure. A proximate leader shaped by lived experience, he centers narrative justice in films and initiatives that expand opportunity for justice-impacted individuals and historically underserved communities.
His debut documentary, Pardon Me, has earned national recognition for reframing conversations around criminal records and second chances. Drawing from his own experience of incarceration and return, the film has screened across more than twenty Pennsylvania counties and at festivals in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and beyond, serving not only as a work of art but as a catalyst for public dialogue and systems-level change.
Beyond filmmaking, Shuja founded Do Moore Good to build practical, neighborhood-based infrastructure connecting storytelling to direct service. Through this work, he has helped mobilize more than one million dollars in resources for local residents and businesses and launched the Pardon Me Network, a community-based model for expanding access to record clearance that began in West Philadelphia and is now positioned to scale. Recognized by the Philadelphia Mayor's Office of Black Male Engagement as a "Remodeled Citizen" and a recipient of a Community Service Award, Shuja is part of a new generation of cultural leaders using media not only to tell stories, but to reshape the systems those stories live within.
Maria Caruso
Operations ConsultantMaria specializes in operations and infrastructure for nonprofits and startups, helping Do Moore Good build the workflows and systems needed to grow and sustain its work at scale. opsthatwork.com
Vicky
Spring InternVicky brings experience in data entry, record management, and information analysis. Her academic and professional interests focus on equity and community-centered work. Interning with Do Moore Good has given her a firsthand look at how meaningful change begins at the ground level, and the collaborative effort it takes to get there.
Tariq Moore
Founder & Director, Philly S.A.F.E.Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Tariq created Philly S.A.F.E. to build real opportunity for young people in his community. A passionate advocate for outreach and fitness, he leads weekly programming and mentorship for young African American men.
Leadership
Board of Directors
Shuja Moore
ChairmanFounder of Do Moore Good, award-winning filmmaker, and community advocate from West Philadelphia.
Carl "Tobey" Oxholm
SecretaryFormer Executive Director of Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity; Director of the PLSE Pardon Project. Harvard Law, 1979.
Atif Bostic
TreasurerPresident & CEO of Uplift Solutions. 20+ years in community and economic development across for-profit and nonprofit sectors.
Calvin Moore
Board MemberOperations Director at Masjid Al Jamia of Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania graduate; former SEPTA District Manager.
Michelle Simmons
Board MemberFounder & CEO of Why Not Prosper, Inc., supporting women transitioning from incarceration to community through mentorship and advocacy.
David Richardson
Board Member15+ years in hospitality management. Born and raised in West Philadelphia, bringing financial expertise and community perspective to the board.
Community in Action
The community is investing in this work
The Bobby Bonds Memorial Foundation presented a donation to support Pardon Me, the award-winning documentary at the heart of DMG's Pardon Us Campaign. Their investment reflects a growing coalition of organizations that believe record clearance and restorative justice are essential to the communities they serve.
When local foundations put their resources behind this film and this campaign, it signals that the work of helping people reclaim their lives matters, and that it takes all of us.
Learn about the Pardon Us Campaign →Supported by
Your support sustains this work. Do Moore Good is a 501(c)3 nonprofit · EIN 56-2572253
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