Mission of Hope Case Manager
Original Classwork
A recovering alcoholic and cancer patient is using her experience to help others.
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Each week, Audra Farrow, the case manager at the Mission of Hope, asks up to 15 homeless clients to define their goals, and she is accustomed blank stares or excuses in response. With either reaction, she patiently asks her clients about their lives until she finds an objective she can encourage them toward.
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Farrow’s office looks like a thrift store; every inch of free space is occupied with sheets, dishes and other assorted household items she stores to give to her clients when they move into their place. She has no children, but her cabinet doors are accented with photos of her niece and two great-nieces, whom she moved to Stillwater so she could see them every day.
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Farrow has been a case manager since October 2016, but eight years before that, her circumstances were similar to many of her clients’ situations. She had to start life over when she arrived in Stillwater with 50 cents and a bag of clothes.
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“My brother didn’t know where I was, nothing,” Farrow said. “Because I had the chance to go. The only person who knew was the person who gave me a ride here. I had the chance to go and I knew if I waited, ‘Oh, wait. Let me get in touch with my brother or wait, let me get in touch with this person,’ I was scared that I might not go, so I just left.”
Farrow fled an established life because for 14 years she secretly struggled with alcohol addiction. She checked into a sober living house within a week of deciding she didn’t want to depend on alcohol any longer.
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When she was 26, Farrow picked up binge drinking to cope with the death of her mother and father, who died within three months of each other. She spiraled into a cycle of excessive drinking during difficult times and limited drinking when life was going well. She could only suppress her cravings in for short periods until negative circumstance derailed her attempts at sobriety.
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“I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore,” Farrow said. “Cause, you can’t be very productive in life and you’re not. And you alienate everyone from you when you wallow in sadness and pain. And I get it cause a lot of people in here, something’s happened to them that makes them have the inability to move forward and I get that, you know?”
On April 17, 2008, Farrow checked into a detox center called Starting Point Two in Stillwater. From there, she moved into a sober living environment called The Oxford House. When she checked in, a caseworker told her if she stayed there a year, she would stay sober.
After nine years of sobriety, Farrow compares her fight to overcome her addiction to her clients’ efforts to rise above their challenging circumstances. She knows their chances are slim, but her experience proves it is possible.
“It’s just like, you know the statistics when someone’s an alcoholic, and they try to stop,” Farrow said. “I mean, the statistic is one in 10. I mean, it’s pretty much like that for us. I mean, because it’s hard work coming back from nothing.”
In June 2011, Farrow relapsed into a struggle for recovery when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Farrow said she had always viewed herself as self-sufficient individual, even in difficult circumstances, but when she got sick she consistently questioned why me? Then one day, she thought why not me? Since then, Farrow said she hopes for the best outcomes, but she refuses to allow challenging situations to overwhelm her. She is cancer free.
Farrow’s commitment to improve her life sometimes makes her job more difficult when her clients don’t show similar drive. Often, people mirror her desire to change, but other times people only come to the Mission of Hope for a place to sleep. In those instances, Farrow races against a strict timeline to motivate them because the shelter is a temporary fix. Mission of Hope clients can stay for 30 days with two opportunities for 15-day extensions. After that, they have to go.
“It’s disheartening to feel like you worked really, really hard to try to get someone to follow these steps, and then in the end, they just don’t want to do it,” Farrow said. “You feel sad, but in your head if you know you brought every opportunity and resource to the table when you worked with them, then I pretty much feel OK. I did what I could do.”
Every time a client leaves without a place to go, Farrow remembers all she did to improve her life throughout her sobriety treatment. She embraced a policy of heeding the advice of individuals who knew better ways to cope with substance abuse even when their suggestions were unappealing. Embracing their employment suggestions was a particularly challenging.
Farrow worked in outreach and social work since she was 24. She worked with Planned Parenthood, Needle Exchange and several other services in Connecticut. She spent several years in high risk outreach with gang members, prostitutes and heroin addicts.
“I liked it,” Farrow said. “My job wasn’t like going out there saying like, ‘Oh, you gotta change who you are. Stop this violent life,’” Farrow said. “That’s not my call, but let me help you be safer and let me help you live and make it through until that time you decide you want to change your life.”
When she was going through treatment, there were no Stillwater jobs available in outreach work. Despite the lack of preferred options, she needed a job. Farrow’s education was limited to a high school diploma, so her only options were fast-food or retail.
“I was like, ‘I’m too good to work at Burger King ‘cause I did outreach,’” Farrow said. “But I went and worked at Burger King for two years ‘cause that’s what they told me to do. So it’s how much you’re willing to do with someone who’s already done it or someone who knows better. Not better, but who knows another way. If, when those people who said, ‘I know a better way to do it. I know a new way. The ways you’ve tried are not working. Try this way.’ And I tried it, and it worked.”
Farrow bounced between jobs until, after five years of applying, she was hired as a receptionist at the Mission of Hope. After two years in that position, she moved up to case worker.
Janna Nelson, the Mission of Hope director, has worked with Farrow since she started as the receptionist. Nelson said Farrow is an outstanding case manager.
“She knows how to be stern,” Nelson said. “But she knows how to let them know she has their back and goes above and beyond to help them accomplish what they need to.”
Tammy Rachmond, the Mission of Hope support specialist, and Terry TallCheif, the Mission of Hope receptionist, agree Farrow contributes to a supportive work environment.
Farrow insists she does well at her job because she lives with the ambition to do the closest to right thing. She strives to never undermine her clients’ experiences, but she makes sure they know there is no reason to stop trying. When Farrow was young and had trouble in school, Farrow’s father used to tell her the same thing she tells her clients.
“If I was getting bullied at school and I came home crying like, ‘I don’t want to go to school,’ He’d be like, ‘I understand that thing is making you upset, but you still gotta go to school. It don’t matter. You still gotta go to school.’” Farrow said. “And that’s what I try to explain to them. I understand that you don’t think you’re gonna find a job. I understand that your record is a hindrance. I understand that your evictions make it hard to find a place, but you still gotta try.”
If clients are too upset to job search, Farrow tells them to cry while they fill out applications online. She knows the way her clients feel is temporary, but their need for employment is permanent. She tells each one money makes the world go round, and he or she doesn’t need a lot of it. He or she needs only enough.
Farrow says all the frustration of failure and difficult experiences are worth her struggle and effort each time she watches a client move into an apartment or show her his or her first paycheck. One of her most memorable triumphs with a client is a 53-year-old woman who went back to college. After her client earned her associate’s degree, Farrow was inspired to pursue higher education as well. She completed her associate’s degree at 49-years-old and she is in the process of completing her bachelor’s degree at Northern Oklahoma College.
Nonprofit management freshman Claire Oldham said she has high regard for nonprofit workers such as Farrow and she said she hopes to continue a legacy of serving other.
“I know it can be hard,” Oldham said. “I know social workers aren’t always in nonprofit, but I know it takes a lot of self-care, so I really admire that. I hope to achieve that level one day.”