OKC Metro Alliance, Inc.

About OKC Metro Alliance, Inc.

OKC Metro Alliance, Inc. is a sober living operator in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in Oklahoma County, running the Men's and Women's Firstep long-term residential recovery programs. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has served Oklahomans for more than fifty years and takes referrals from every part of the state.

A Statewide Recovery Housing Provider Based in Oklahoma City

The organization's stated mission is to increase sobriety, decrease incarceration and recover lives. It does that through two lines of work. Firstep is long-term residential work recovery on two campuses. The Public Inebriate Alternative, run for the Oklahoma City Police Department, gives officers somewhere to take a person who would otherwise go to jail, saving both lives and public money. Recovery housing and jail diversion under one nonprofit is a rare combination, and it explains the organization's reach into courts across the state.

Two Firstep Sober Living Campuses

Both campuses sit on acreage in south Oklahoma City:

• Men's Firstep, with 66 resident beds plus 20 single-occupancy apartments in the Men's Lodge.
• Women's Firstep, with 56 resident beds.

Keeping the programs on separate campuses means each has its own staff, its own curriculum and house rules written for one population. The Men's Lodge is graduate housing offered only on the men's campus, for residents who have completed the program and need help securing outside employment, planning finances and finding their own place.

How This Recovery Housing Provider Is Funded

There is no out-of-pocket cost to a resident or a family, and no insurance is required. The programs are funded through employer contracts, resident fees once employment begins, private donors, foundations and other partners. A resident is assigned a work training site, works up to forty hours a week at minimum wage or better, and the great majority of that wage is withheld to pay for the program. In exchange the resident receives meals, transportation to work and appointments, meetings, classes, counseling and mental health services through a partnership with NorthCare. For someone with no money and no insurance, that funding model is the whole reason the door is open.

OKARR Certification Across Both Sober Living Programs

Both Firstep programs achieved certification with the Oklahoma Alliance for Recovery Resources in July 2020 and have earned recertification every year since. Both are certified at Level 2. Certification is voluntary in Oklahoma and is granted residence by residence, so an operator holding it on both campuses across five consecutive years has built the standard into how it runs.

Who These Oklahoma Sober Homes Are For

Admission requires being over eighteen, living with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, willing and able to work full time, participating in the Twelve Step program, and able to self-administer medication. Residents cannot bring a vehicle, and off-campus trips are supervised. The minimum stay is six months and residents may remain up to two years. Anyone needing on-site clinical supervision is a poor match.

Referral Sources and Statewide Reach

Referrals arrive from program graduates, attorneys, drug and alcohol counselors, ministers, social workers, physicians, Twelve Step groups, courts and jail alternative programs, including drug courts operating in fifty-nine of Oklahoma's counties. Screening runs through the organization directly. Oklahoma's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services maintains statewide treatment and recovery resources.