From a Rainy Day to a New Beginning: Meet Mikayla
On a rainy day, in the unrelenting heat of a muggy Arkansas summer, Mikayla took a chance on Immerse. She didn’t know what bus to take or what she’d find when she arrived. All she had to go on was the word of someone who, like Mikayla, was experiencing homelessness. He’d given her the address of The OC youth center and told her she’d find good people there who would help her.
After walking up and down Asher Avenue reading building numbers to find 5300, Mikayla figured she was lost, so she sat down in the rain to regroup — on the curb right outside The OC. LifeBASE Coach Angie Hightower, who managed The OC then, spotted her. Angie opened the front doors to The OC and invited her in.
Trusting new people and a new situation was a brave choice for Mikayla, 23, after the setbacks she’d faced. But setbacks are part of life; breakthroughs seldom occur without them. Mikayla was already learning not to let them hold her down.
She got sober and began studying to become a Certified Nursing Assistant while pregnant and living in an abandoned building without electricity; she charged her phone at school, then at home, she hurried to get her homework done before sunset and finished it by flashlight.
At Immerse, Mikayla found the tools she needed to begin healing from trauma, relearn positive coping skills and transition to a healthy adulthood: therapy, relationship-based coaching, life- and job-skills training, educational supports and safe emergency housing. She got a job, learned how to navigate public transportation, saved toward rent for her first apartment and built healthy relationships within her circle of support.
“I have a good connection with a staff member at The Station,” Mikayla said. “I feel like she’s safe enough to express what I’m going through and how I’m feeling without ever thinking that she’ll tell my business or be judgmental.”
Immerse staff held her accountable and encouraged her sobriety. “When I fell,” she remembered, “they helped me back up.”
Mikayla is a mom now, with the tools she needs to continue healing and living a restored, hope-filled future.
Young people like Mikayla are breaking generational cycles of poverty and trauma at Immerse every day. We want them to learn, like Mikayla did, that we’re walking alongside them no matter what; the broad, reliable pathway to healing is always available to them; and the doors at Immerse are always open, no matter how many do-overs they might need along the way.