Thistle Farms message of healing continues to spread
- The organization works to heal survivors of prostitution, human trafficking and drug addiction.
Finding a church home was one of the most important tasks on Darren’s and my checklist when we moved from southwest Florida to Nashville last year.
We had been active members of Iona-Hope Episcopal in Fort Myers, as choir members and on a variety of other ministries and committees.
Iona-Hope’s rector Ray Buchanan, who is from Tennessee, gave us a few names, and we were amazed that on our second Sunday, we found a new place of worship in St. Augustine’s Chapel on Vanderbilt University’s campus. We felt welcomed right away.
That first day we not only met the chaplain, Rev. Becca Stevens, but we also learned about the exceptional organization that she founded nearly 20 years ago, Thistle Farms.
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Thistle Farms is a community dedicated to the healing of women who are survivors of prostitution, human trafficking and/or drug addiction.
The organization has numerous components, such as, the two-year Magdalene residential treatment program, the Thistle Stop Café, a natural body care line and a global marketplace called Shared Trade. Supporters call themselves “Thistle Farmers.”
On the business side, Thistle Farms has 72 people on the payroll, makes $2 million in sales annually and ships products to every state in the union.
On the social service side, there are 30 women in group homes and 130 on the waiting list, plus plans to open homes in 20 states.
Accolades, attention grow
“It's growing — that's what it feel like — it's gaining momentum,” said Stevens, who travels nationally and internationally to tell its story. “You want the message to spread and the hope to spread.”
This past year Thistle Farms has received some incredible attention and accolades.
Its story was one that was told in the PBS special “A Path Appears,” which sought to uncover and highlight gender oppression, violence against women and child slavery across the world. Stevens and actress Ashley Judd were featured in addition to the women of Magdalene.
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The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center awarded Thistle Farms its Social Enterprise and Sustainability NEXT Award in the growth category at its Nov. 19 ceremony.
On Dec. 8 the "Today" show featured Thistle Farms in a segment called “Gifts That Give Back.”
That show led to $12,000 in sales within the next hour, said CEO Hal Cato, who took over day-to-day operations of Thistle Farms this year to allow Stevens to focus on delivering the message beyond Nashville.
He is looking ahead to Thistle Farms’ continuing evolution and envisions doubling sales in three years, hiring more employees, expanding hours and broadening the café’s menu, with cooperation from the Goldberg brothers’ Strategic Hospitality group.
“It’s been an incredibly mission-oriented organization that also operates a business,” Cato said. “I’m super excited about making it a profitable business that has an incredibly strong mission.”
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In the end, it is about the women and their healing — some who have been victimized as little girls and criminalized in their teens, said Stevens, who added that results take hold after a few months.
“It's kind of like watching the light come back in somebody's eyes,” she said. “You meet women at first and they're in trauma. They're very scared and very leery of what we're doing.
“All of the sudden — three or four months into it — you start seeing them smiling and laughing about stuff.”
Story of transformation
One of those women is Katrina Robertson, 48, of West Nashville.
She had been abused by her stepfather as an 11-year-old and started a downward spiral of drug addiction at age 14.
She began living on the streets.
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"I was selling my body and had a horrible crack addiction at 18," she said.
Robertson learned about Thistle Farms in 2001 and met the women in the program.
"It was so unbelievable that total strangers wanted me to be better and didn't want anything from me," she said.
However, a bad relationship and her drug addiction led her back to the streets for another four years.
She never forgot, though, that a manager told her "when I got I tired, I could come back."
And, she did, in 2005, and it was transformational.
"My life was so dark that death would have been a blessing," she said.
Robertson graduated from Magdalene's two-year residential program, went through a financial class to clear her credit and built a home from the ground up. She also got back her daughter back, who was living with her grandmother because Robertson could not care for her.
The Magdalene graduate went from labeling candles at Thistle Farms to becoming its national sales director, managing accounts for the 400 to 500 stores that carry its products.
And she managed to get through her past by accepting this mantra:
"I was not all that stuff I had been through and done. I was not all those horrible things to support my habit. I was not all the things I had done to my daughter. I was deserving of grace and mercy and that's what I've got."
She now takes pride and joy in watching other Magdalene residents heal.
"I see that in their eyes," she said. "You watch. It's like a thistle, that prickly flower turns into a beautiful, mysterious, purple flower."
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Anika Rogers, 33, walked a path similar to Robertson.
Originally from Detroit, she moved to Nashville at the age of 12.
Throughout her childhood she lived in seven different foster homes, where she was molested each time.
She ran away from home at 15 to get away from the abuse and lived on the streets, selling her body and living with a drug addiction.
Rogers told me she had been arrested 87 times for a variety of crimes related to her plight.
During her incarceration in 2012, Rogers said she was desperate to find help and a counselor told her about Thistle Farms and Magdalene.
"I don't have any money, I want help," she remembers telling the counselor. "I was told (Magdalene) gave two years rent-free. I said, 'Yeah right'."
In 2015 she graduated from the program. She is drug free, owns a home and has worked for Thistle Farms for three years, first in shipping and now helping out with public relations and marketing.
In addition, "I have a man who treats me like a queen," she said.
"I'm able to love my sisters who come into the program," she said. "I'm able to have sympathy. I'm able to spread the message that love heals and that there is a way out."
Getting involved
The Thistle Stop Café is on Charlotte Avenue, just off 52nd Avenue North.
Darren and I stopped by the café for its Thistle Farms Holiday Marketplace on Nov. 21
The aroma of coffee and candles filled the air. Tables of arts and crafts for sale abounded. Customers came to buy goods and stayed to chat with old and new friends.
We bought a small painting of a guitar, representing our Music City experience. It was signed “C. Slaughter.”
Our aim next year is to become more involved with Thistle Farms and find out how we can cooperate in helping this remarkable community.
During a recent telephone conversation, I asked Stevens if she had received any push-back from Thistle Farms. She answered: “Nashville has always surprised me with how welcome and open it's been.”
That’s the very same way we have felt ever since coming to this community.
David Plazas is opinion engagement editor of The Tennessean. Call him at 615-259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.
How to give
You can donate money to Thistle Farms online at http://thistlefarms.org/. Thistle Farms is located at 5122 Charlotte Pike, Nashville, TN 37209. To find out more about how to volunteer, call 615-298-1140 or email info@thistlefarms.org.
About Season to Give
Each Tuesday through Dec. 29, The Tennessean will highlight one local nonprofit organization doing good work in hopes of inspiring community support through giving of time and donations. It is part of our purpose to actively influence and impact a better quality of life in Middle Tennessee, as well as help support those in need this holiday season.