The Prison Story Behind This Tulsa Coffee Shop

Brandon Andres Green, host of Good Neighbor Podcast Tulsa, sits down with Rhonda Bear of She Brews Coffee House and Stand in the Gap Ministries to talk about prison, recovery, women’s reentry, second chances, and what it really takes to help a life rebuild.

Rhonda shares her own story of addiction, prison time, faith, motherhood, and the long road back into stability. That personal journey became the foundation for a much larger mission: helping women coming home from prison or jail find safe housing, steady support, employment, mentorship, and a real path toward family restoration.

This conversation highlights the powerful connection between She Brews Coffee House and Stand in the Gap Ministries. She Brews provides job training, coffee roasting, meaningful work, and a visible business built around second chances. Stand in the Gap surrounds women with the deeper support system they need through mentoring, consistent relationships, transition support, and people who keep showing up after the first inspiring moment fades.

Rhonda explains why reentry is about more than getting a job. Women coming home often have to rebuild trust, regain custody, recover from trauma, stay sober, find housing, repair relationships, and learn how to live differently. That kind of change takes more than encouragement. It takes structure, community, accountability, and people willing to walk with them over time.

If you care about criminal justice reform, addiction recovery, women’s reentry, transitional housing, mentorship, family restoration, or supporting mission-driven local work in Tulsa and Claremore, this conversation is worth your time.

Sometimes a second chance starts with coffee, but it survives because someone stays.

Transcript

Welcome To Good Neighbor Podcast

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Brandon Andris Green.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. You know what? A cup of coffee can be simple, but in the right hands, it can open the door to dignity, work, community, and simply a fresh start. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Rhonda Bear with She Brews Coffee House. Through She Bruce, Rhonda helps create real opportunities for women rebuilding their lives. Her work also connects with Stand in the Gap Ministries, which helps surround people with support, encouragement, and healthy relationships. Rhonda, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Things are good, Brandon. Thank you for the invite.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

You're so welcome. And I'm super excited to learn about Shebrews and how your work helps women move forward. Will you tell us a little bit about Shebrews Coffee House and maybe your heart behind

She Brews Mission And Program

SPEAKER_01 1:10

it?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Okay. So yeah, you know, She Bruce is an Oklahoma uh roaster and coffee house and transition program. So we we do have a coffee shop that provides uh employment training for women who are just as impacted. Our goal is to reduce incarceration and reduce recidivism, to reduce that returning to prison. But along with the uh job training, we also provide a very structured program that lasts about 18 to 24 months, and we provide safe and affordable housing. Our goal is to help women get their life on track and hopefully get their children out of DHS custody or out of next to kin or out of a neighbor's uh possession, right? We want to get children restored home to the mother and begin working on restoring a family dynamic. And we do this through job training through coffee.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

And does this work kind of in tandem with um Stand in the Gap? Will you kind of uh help me understand all this better?

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yes.

Mentorship Through Stand In The Gap

SPEAKER_02 2:26

So Stand in the Gap is a mentorship program. So with Stand in the Gap, we get each woman that we serve, we get her a team of mentors who are willing to commit to walk with her at least for 12 months, to meet with her three times or for three hours a month, at least twice a month, an hour and a half each meeting, to maintain communication through text messages and phone calls throughout the month, just to encourage her and to help her uh navigate transitioning back into the world. Um also, you know, when we do and get the women in our in our life and they've come out of prison or jail and they don't have their children with them. What is restoration with children look like? And to have a couple of mentors to walk with them through that step is very instrumental in long-term success.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So, how did you get involved with all this in the first place?

Rhonda’s Story From Addiction

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Well, Brandon, I'm a former drug addict who grew up uh basically being addicted to drugs, which led me into exploitation and really ruined my life. And I struggled with drug addiction from a very early age, starting at smoking marijuana at 12, then eventually moving to pills. And so my whole life was basically filled with addiction. And at the age of 35, I was sent to prison for 10 years uh for drug possession and and drug-related crimes. And the people that I hurt the most in that were my children. I had children, I wanted my children to be my answer for quitting drugs, but I just I couldn't do it. I couldn't, I couldn't quit. It doesn't make sense. How do you give up something you love for something that's so destructive? But I did that for years, and um, prison was a real opportunity for me to get free. And people often laugh and say, How do you find freedom in prison? Well, it gave me a time out from the drugs, it gave me a timeout from the people that I associated with, and it gave me a time to refocus. And there I met a lady that did prison ministry, and she was part of a program called Stand in the Gap. Wow! Yes, so that's how this connection came. And so she encouraged me after prison to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and start over where I didn't know anybody and get a fresh start. And there I had this team of mentors through Stand in the Gap come around me and walk with me, and they taught me how to be a good mom. I, with their guidance, I graduated college with a bachelor degree in social work, and before that, I had an eighth-grade education. So this team of mentors came in and encouraged me in every place that I thought where I was weak, I thought it was stupid, I thought it was worthless because I was right, drugs took everything from me, but to have these people walk with me and help me rebuild my life and help me get my children looked back and help me encourage me to get an education so I could support my family, um, show me what a healthy marriage looked like so I could have a healthy marriage. And through that, my life began to change. And and I eventually did marry, and my husband encouraged me to dream.

Why Coffee Becomes A Bridge

SPEAKER_02 6:12

And when I started dreaming, I thought, how can I help other children in the state of Oklahoma? Because a lot of people don't realize that Oklahoma incarcerated more women than anywhere in the world per capita for over 30 years. For over 30 years, Brandon, we were okay with that. But what happened to the children? Right? Where did the kids go? And um, so my passion began with how can I save children? How can I help their moms? So I began to pay it forward. I became the volunteer that went into the prison, I became the woman that told the women in prison how to get out. And if you go to a different community and you make different changes, how different your life can be. And in doing that, I had to create safe housing and I had to create a piece of uh a job employment piece, and so she breeze was birthed because I felt like coffee was a low investment with a high impact, right? If you go in and you I used to sell coffee for a dollar a cup, folders, that's how I started was selling folders a dollar a cup in a farm in a little uh antique booth, but I knew it people would stop and talk and they would talk to one of the women and they would just give them a few minutes and opportunity that they could realize they could develop a relationship and they would realize that these women are not bad women, they don't have to be defined by their past. That if given an opportunity, these women could really make long-lasting changes, and and it worked, and in a community was changed. The community began to open their hearts to these women and invite these women into their churches and invite these women into their homes, and they begin to mentor these women, and because of that, a coffee shop was able to grow and expand, even though that was never my vision, was not to expand a coffee shop. My vision was to expand community for women coming out of prison so that we could get their children back, but in doing that, of course, the coffee shop played a role in it, and then we we began to be able to expand the coffee shop, uh expand the mentoring program, and expand housing across the state, and just began to grow that that program.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Are you managing all this yourself? Because on my end, I'm I hear um a coffee shop owner having to manage all the women, and I'm sure the drama that comes along with recidivism, with uh addiction, with trying to reconnect with their kids, and then also housing and managing all of that. Um, are you is this a one-man show or how does how is that working?

Growing Beyond A One Person Show

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Yes, from 2008 to 2020, it was a one-man show. There was not a whole lot of sleep in my life. And what happened in 20, there wasn't, it was uh it was hard, but in 2020, a coffee shop building came open in the time in the heart of COVID, June of 2020, a coffee shop came open at first in Lewis in Tulsa, and people encouraged me to try to move into that coffee shop, which I was really hesitant. I was already working 60 and 70 hours a week. How was I going to move to Tulsa? But the opportunity ended up presenting itself. I was able to expand to Tulsa, and at that expansion, my board grew, people got involved, and honestly, today I have about 18 employees. Wow. And that started in 2020, whenever I had the fortune of moving to Tulsa, because Tulsa has been a beautiful community that has gotten involved, and whether it's been through grants or private donors or volunteers or just people having wanting a good cup of coffee, um that the mission has been able to grow and expand so that we could expand and hire people, you know, and one of my favorite things we do, Brandon, is at our coffee shop too, because coffee is very

Roasting Beans And Women Run Farms

SPEAKER_02 10:43

competitive. So I had to move beyond folders, right? To stay in business. So I had this beautiful person named Vito come into my life, and Vito taught uh taught me how to uh broker with uh to reach out to brokers who broker with plantations around the world, and we started bringing in green beans from around the world, and now we roast our own beans. But my favorite thing is to find uh female ran plantations, which is hard to do, but there's some out there. There's a couple in Columbia, there's one in uh Kenya, and so we partner with these female ran plantations because we believe that that helps support children in other countries, and that's that's my heart is to partner with these female ran plantations, support those children, just like we're supporting children here, and uh and therefore be able to help not just people in the United States, but help people in other countries.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

That's incredible. Now, what does this work kind of taught you about second chances?

Second Chances And Healing Trauma

SPEAKER_02 11:53

You know what? If a per if a person doesn't get a second chance, then a family doesn't get a second chance, and what happens to the children? That's always my heart. What happens to the children? Where are the children? And uh incarceration, substance abuse, separation produces such levels of trauma. And if we don't address it and try to restore the family and provide, like in our program, we provide group therapy, individual therapy, we include a huge component of therapy trying to help families heal from the trauma of that lifestyle.

Not Defined By Your Worst Day

SPEAKER_01 12:38

And Rhonda, what's one thing that our listeners should remember about these women you serve?

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Well, I like to tell the women that I serve that they are not defined by their worst day. Their worst day, their worst mistake. They're not defined by that. And I tell them to rise up. In fact, I tell them if someone said to me today that they would not hire me because I'm a felon, I would have to chuckle and keep going. Because I, you know, I am a felon, but I am a hard worker, I'm a dedicated worker, I have vision and I have courage to follow through with that. And I see that in about probably 70 to 80 percent of the women I work with in our prison system, and that's why I encourage them do not be defined by your past, rise up, I tell them, rise up, queen, and straighten your tiara and let's march forward and let's be life changers. Let's don't forget the woman behind us in the prison. Let's always go back and get her and try to lead her forward, also. Of course, when you're dealing with addiction and the the issues beneath addiction, it's it's difficult and we're not a hundred percent, but I tell people we give a hundred percent plus, right? To give that opportunity for people to be able to change their lives.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

That's incredible.

Visit Locations And Get Involved

SPEAKER_01 14:11

And how can our listeners learn more, get involved, and maybe will you share your address for Shee Brews?

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Thank you for that. One of our addresses is one North Lewis, Tulsa, Oklahoma. We're right at the uh next to the farmers market. Uh, and then we have a location in Clearmore at 408 West Will Rogers Boulevard, Clearmore, Oklahoma. We just opened that new location last week. Um, we have a website, you briefcoffee.org. And uh of course, standin'thegapministries.org, where if someone wanted to be hands-on and be a mentor, um, we provide a very well good training to be so that they are protected. Um, we teach them how to walk with people coming out of prison. Um, there's always an opportunity in the Department of Corrections to be a volunteer and we can help with that. So there's a lot of things that people can do.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Well, Rhonda, I so appreciate you taking the time to be on the show. We know that you're a busy woman. And I uh wish Hebrews and Standard Gap Ministries the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Brandon, I loved getting to meet you today, and I look forward to knowing more about your story and more about your work. So thank you for the invitation.

Nominate A Local Business

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmptulsa.com. That's gmptulsa.com or call number one eight.