WORTHY
How moms facing incarceration gain futures with ReMerge REMERGE CELEBRATED THE OPENING OF ITS NEW BUILDING IN NOVEMBER 2019.
BY RERE LUNSFORD. PHOTOS PROVIDED.
Cierra Eastep’s 7-year-old son scanned the crowd of parents at the class assembly and excitedly pointed her out when he saw her: “That’s my mom!” he told his friends.
“All of our moms are high-risk, high-need, either pregnant or mothers of minor children who are eligible for reunification,” said Hillary Burkholder, director of community engagement for ReMerge. “That’s what we really focus on because we want to break those intergenerational cycles.”
He was proud, but nowhere near as proud as Eastep was to hear his words. Eastep’s son tells her often how proud he is of her, and those words mean a lot to the mother of four, who a year ago was facing incarceration. Eastep is celebrating the completion of her first semester of college with the help of ReMerge, an Oklahoma City female diversion program that focuses on pregnant women and mothers with felony charges in Oklahoma County who are facing incarceration.
ReMerge has graduated 126 participants from the program since it began in 2011.
The four-phase program takes an average of 18 to 24 months to complete. Upon graduating the program, participants’ charges can be dismissed.
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“They have 317 children among them that we are hopefully breaking that cycle for,” said Burkholder. The privately-funded nonprofit is looking to make an even greater impact with its new 19,000-square-foot building located at 823 N. Villa. ReMerge can currently serve 50 mothers at a time, and the new building will enable the program to increase that by 50 percent. Both staff and clients provided input on the building’s design to create an intentional,
trauma-informed space. It includes a fitness center, kitchen, privacy nooks, visitation area and a restoration garden. “The whole building was really designed for them to feel valued and to know they are worth the investment we are making in them,” said Burkholder.
ReMerge in action When clients begin the program, they are onsite Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They attend meetings, appointments, classes and groups. Each mom is assigned a team with a therapist, care coordinator and recovery support specialist. As they phase up in the program, they spend less time onsite and more time working or going to school, but at a minimum the moms spend 1,100 hours at ReMerge. In partnership with the public defender and district attorney’s office, ReMerge receives referrals about women who may be eligible
