OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Cherie Bender says, when she was incarcerated, her mom always used to talk about starting up a "halfway house."
"You just go in jail, you come out, you go in," she remembers her saying. "There's got to be something we can do."
Bender is on the verge of making that dream a reality. After her mom passed, Bender started working on Georgia's House of Hope, named for her mom. It will help women transition out of prison, like Bender herself has.
"I had to find out who I am," she said. "Once I found that ... I found my purpose. This is my purpose. To help other women like me."
She says "re-entry" needs to be coupled with "redirect and redesign."
There's been a lot of work recently getting the house ready. Bender says it'll be ready in mid-April. They'll have room for up to eight women and will be able to stay up to ninety days.
"The first 90 days is crucial for us," she said. "We'll transition you to a better way of thinking, acting and living."
Bender is joined by two employees, including Yalanda Jefferson, a case manager.
"We did the same journey," Jefferson said. "We did time together. She became that voice in my ear that would not stop ... would not let me give up."
After Jefferson was released in 2020, she started a work-from-home call center business, connecting her employees with several different companies with flexible hours. She'll offer work to women in the home. As a volunteer, she'll visit the women's prison in York and at the Work Release Program and Lincoln to help people make a plan for release, and meet people who could be helped at Georgia's House of Hope.
Bender says they'll partner with several organizations, including Compassion in Action and Metro Community College's 180 Re-Entry Assistance Program.
Bender says she used to use her mom as a "crutch." But things changed "drastically" after she lost a son to gang violence and her mom.
After losing her son while incarcerated, she "almost sunk. I almost sent myself back to prison ... Then my mother ended up getting sick. I just turned it around."
"I was so used to the norm of getting out and having that crutch," she said. She recalls thinking "'Okay, she's going to take care of my kids...I can keep doing the things I'm doing.'" As she puts it now: "Not worrying about the repercussions of my behavior." But she says it all made it "the woman I am today."
"We came out and changed our lives," Jefferson said. "Now it's time for us to change other lives."
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