MAGDALENE & THISTLE FARMS - A Way Out

Magdalene & Thistle Farms

A Way Out

WHY A

THISTLE FARMS

sprouts up

Thistle

Thistle Farm got its name because the thistle flower

is the women's emblem,

and they use it with products they create.

The Magdalene program requires that participants begin working after four

months in recovery. Many find this employment with Thistle Farms, an affiliated business that helps fund the program.

Thistle

Thistle Farms was created in 2001

as a social enterprise to provide employment for residents and

graduates of Magdalene. While working at Thistle Farms the women learn valuable skills in packaging, marketing, sales and manufacturing, administration--helping the women to move from poverty to independence.

Thistles

Thistles grow in the streets and alleys where the women of Magdalene walked. Considered

a weed, they have a deep root that can shoot through thick concrete and survive drought.

In spite of the prickly appearance of a thistle, its royal soft purple center makes it a mysterious and gorgeous flower.

At Thistle Farms, the residents

of Magdalene participate in therapeutic workshops where they learn to make bath and body oils, candles, and paper. The paper is made from thistle plants that the women collect on roadsides and fields, and every product that Thistle Farm produces is sold wrapped in it.

Thistle Farms is housed in an 11,000 square feet sales and manufacturing facility. Thistle Farms is committed to growing in order to employ more women, and have greater opportunities to share their products and stories of healing on a larger scale.

Most prostitutes

make survival-based decisions, and would not be prostitutes if they had viable options.

SOMETHING

TO

THINK

ABOUT

A cycle of violence and neglect can be broken, but it is difficult to get out of prostitution on one’s own; longer-term interventions by effective organizations have been proven to work.

Reported by MMP.Org - Helping Women out

of Domestic Violence & Prostitution

A prostitute’s history of victimization and trauma sets her up for a psychological belief that she deserves no better, and has no other options.

SOMETHING

TO

THINK

ABOUT

MMP.Org - Helping Women out of Domestic

Violence & Prostitution

Society as a whole stigmatizes prostitutes as criminals, as opposed to victims. Prostitution is an extension of sexual abuse, for the vast majority. No little girl wants to be a prostitute when she grows up.

F.A.C.T. Alliance

JOBS

that make a difference

THE PROGRAM

a way out

By hand the women create natural body care products that are as good for the body as they are for the earth.

At Magdalene, women receive two years of free housing, therapy, medical care, education and employment -- everything they need to prepare them for the transition back into a community.

Thistle Farms products are available in over 200 stores in Tennessee and across the country. The products are sold at specialty stores, online, at special events, and at Whole Foods in Nashville. 100% of the proceeds benefit the women of Magdalene and Thistle Farms.

In its sixteen year history, Magdalene has had more than 150 graduates, about 72% of whom were clean two and a half years after entering the program.

A WAY OUT

About the Magdalene Program

Thistle Farms wants people

to see their organization as a humble but powerful business that is synonymous with women’s freedom.

Many women on the street today are the children we failed to protect yesterday.

Something

To

Think

About

MYTH: Many believe women choose prostitution because they see it as an easy way to make money.

Magdalene & Thistle Farms

Magdalene furnishes housing for 30 residents and graduates and provides outreach services to women still living on the streets. New residents are given a key and are offered the necessary resources to maintain recovery, heal from childhood wounds, become physically healthy and find employment.

MMP.Org - Helping Women out of

Domestic Violence and Prostitution

MMP. Org - Helping Women out of

Domestic Violence and Prostitution

After four months, the women find work, return to school and/or enter Magdalene’s job training program at Thistle Farms, a social enterprise. Magdalene also offers a matched savings program to help residents prepare for economic independence upon graduation. Women who remain in recovery two years post-graduation are eligible for a new home buying program administered by two local congregations and Magdalene.

Magdalene’s programs are grounded in its 24 spiritual principles that advocate living gracefully in community with one another. Residents, graduates, staff and volunteers share daily tasks, offer hospitality, build on each other’s strengths, and provide compassionate, disciplined support.

For many women caught up in the cycle of

prostitution

there seems to be no way out.

But in Nashville, Tennessee,

Magdalene & Thistle Farms

provide

a way out

for women on the streets.

The Women of Magdelene

HOW TO HELP

GET INVOLVED

MAGDALENE

& Video Stories

• Order Thistle Farms products online
• Host a party and sell Thistle Farms products
• Volunteer at Thistle Farms & Magdalene
• Invite a Thistle Farmer to speak to your group

and the priest with a big heart

All women are entitled to unconditional respect for their intrinsic dignity and value.

Magdalene and Thistle Farms stand as a witness to the truth that

love is more powerful than all the forces that drive women to the streets.

Magdalene was founded in 1997 by Becca Stevens, an Episcopal priest who grew up in Nashville and had been sexually abused as a child.

Magdalene receives no government funding.

Instead, they rely on

private grants, individual

donations, and the sales of Thistle Farms products.

Rev. Becca Stevens

Over 85% of prostitutes are victims of childhood sexual molestation and incest.

Magdalene is a two-year private residential rehab program

for women with a criminal history

of prostitution and addiction.

Video Stories of Magdalene & Thistle Farms

At Magdalene and Thistle Farms, they believe freedom begins with healing, and that love is the strongest force for change in the world.

Prostitution is as much a sociological issue related to cultural perceptions of women as second class citizens, as it is a criminal, legal, or nuisance issue.

(turn down prezi sound/music for video sound only)

Greater than 50% of prostitutes are/were runaway or “throwaway” youth.

Becca Stevens and the Women of Magdalene & Thistle Farms

DID YOU KNOW?

Information reported by MMP.Org

Helping Women out of Domestic Violence & Prostitution

HEAR THEM SPEAK THEIR TRUTH

Shelia's Story

About Magdalene

Women of Magdalene

Prostitutes risk violence with every trick, and are 9 times more likely to be murdered than the average working woman.

Prostitution is primarily an economic choice of last resort for women who come from poverty and have little education, skills and options.

www.thistlefarms.org

Magdalene was founded not only to help a subculture of women, but also to help transform the culture itself. They proudly stand in solidarity with women who are recovering from abuse, trafficking, addiction, and life on the streets, and who have paid dearly for a culture that continues to buy and sell women.

The vast majority of prostitutes are childhood victims of some combination of emotional, sexual and physical violence.

NY Times, On the Ground

The average age of entry into prostitution is between 12-14.

DID YOU

KNOW?

F.A.C.T. Alliance

Children of prostitutes usually become/are victims themselves.

MMP.Org - Helping Women out of Domestic Violence and Prostitution