Love Heals

Unique program helps women escape streets, transform lives - CNN
Unique program helps women escape streets, transform lives - CNN

An article by Anthony Giesick


Can the history of abuse create a desire in a person that will positively effect the lives of hundreds? Or will that same series of events send that individual down a familiar path, or this time as the abuser? Can a heart of gold be birthed out of a shattered past? These questions could easily plaque the mind as one reads of the abuse that many face daily.

Throughout the cities of our man-made society there is often a collection of young ladies that sell their bodies on the streets as a way of life and a way of making a living.

What causes these woman to chose this way of life? I believe that it could be multitude of things; such as addiction, the need to eat or feed their own families, or self-worth. With all of the various possible factors, I truly believe that the most common one is that the girls don't feel loved or valued outside of the profession of prostitution.

I recently read an article based in Nashville, Tennessee that shared the story of a few of these ladies as they journeyed through their difficult course into recovery. The program entitled "Thistle Farms" was started by Becca Stevens over twenty years ago. The program's was started to give these hurting ladies a place to live and a support group as they deal with their pasts, their addiction, and their losses in family and friends.

"None of the women ended up on the streets by themselves. And so it makes sense that it takes a community to welcome them home," said Stevens, who started the program in 1997.

Now, there are five residential communities in Nashville that house these ladies and provides them with food, clothing, personal hygiene products and most importantly a community.

As the community reached out to the ladies on the streets, the need for helpers and workers become more paramount. Over the years as ladies would graduate out of the program, they would soon be offered a job with the nonprofit business. The million-dollar company now employs 70 people, where two-thirds of the employees are graduates of the program.

One of the aspects of the Thistle Farms company is to create bath and body lotions and soaps that are now sold in over 450 stores. This branch of the Thistles Farms company allows the recovering women to have jobs, earn wages and make positive steps for a new and better life.

"I love thistles. Some (people) think of them as a noxious weed, and yet they have this beautiful purple and deep center. When we were going down to meet the women on the streets, that was the last wildflower that was there. So it made sense to name our company after it and remind us all that something to be discarded is (also) something to embrace and see beauty in. That's what we're reminding women: They are fully bloomed, wonderful gifts already." Stevens said in an interview posted to CNN.com

As it was said by Catrina, a graduate of the program in 2007, in an interview with CNN.com; "They loved me until I could love myself." With a smile on her face one could tell that she was happy with program, but more importantly she was happy with direction change of her life through the program as well as the loving supporting friends that she had made along the way.

Restoration is the act of returning something to it's former condition. In order to restore the self-worth of a heart-broken and love deprived person you must first see the value that the person had/has. That is the beauty of a nonprofit organization like Thistle Farms; all of the ladies that are there are loved and cared for. That simple act of showing someone who has lost all hope that they are loved in life changing. That life change will ripple through generations.

CNN.com article- http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/02/us/cnn-hero-becca-stevens/index.html
CNN.com video- http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/06/02/cnnheroes-becca-stevens-extra.cnn