Recovery Community and Social Enterprise Launch National Education Program
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Despite federal funds used to address human trafficking, comprehensive, long-term services for victims of trafficking are hard to obtain, namely for adult, US citizens. A housing-first and employment approach is needed to affect a change in the issue of domestic human trafficking and prostitution.
Magdalene & Thistle Farms address the needs of women who have been trafficked or prostituted in the United States as well as the needs of the communities where they live. Founded not just to help a subculture of women but also to help change a culture that buys and sells individuals as commodities for sexual exploitation, Magdalene & Thistle Farms are ‘best practice’ models where women experience transformative, sustainable change through housing, treatment, education, training and employment.
One of our goals at Magdalene & Thistle Farms is to spread the vision to a wider community. In this way, we become a voice in the dialogue that promotes women’s freedom, while at the same time encouraging others to start their own communities. With increasing requests to share the model of Magdalene & Thistle Farms from individuals and organizations interested in the work, we have a launched a national education program by offering monthly immersion days. Plans are also underway for a national conference on the subject. These education days are offered at no cost to participants.
While we do not plan to replicate our programs through our 501c3in other cities, we provide free monthly training and programmatic consultation to such groups. Since launching our education program we have hosted over 600 people from over 80 locations including Atlanta, St. Louis, New Orleans, Dallas, Charleston, Memphis, Raleigh, Florida, New York, Scotland, Canada, London and more. We have heard from groups all over the world and have developed partnerships with women’s cooperatives in Rwanda, Ecuador, Ghana and Kenya. We have also travelled nationally as well, speaking about human trafficking and prostitution to approximately 50,000 people. Currently, we are under consideration for a collaborative grant that will provide seed money for two sister programs being launched in St. Louis, MO and New Orleans, LA.
The goals of Magdalene and Thistle Farms’ Education Workshops are to: share the vision of Magdalene and Thistle Farms; to help others duplicate the model; to provide an up-close look at the inner workings of a social enterprise; to inspire and offer an opportunity for meditation & renewal; and to engage students and teachers. We invest $20,000 a year to cover the costs associated with the immersion day, which include printed materials, overhead staff costs, and hospitality. We also make available at no cost all of our program documents, forms, budgets and policies and procedures.
Dispelling myths about trafficking and prostitution and the difficulty of successful intervention and support for this population is most often our most difficult challenge in helping other communities with program duplication. To that end, we put a face on the women we serve by offering free trainings, tours, and speaking engagements that always feature a graduate telling her story of recovery.
More About This Charity
Region
South
Category
Most Effective Awareness Campaign
Name
Magdalene & Thistle Farms
Mission
By nurturing transformative, sustainable change for healing and freedom, Magdalene and Thistle Farms stand in solidarity with women who have survived lives of trafficking, prostitution and addiction.
Impact
- This charity raised $1,738,458 in the past year
- This Achievement helped 551 people
- This charity helped 50 people in the past year
- Free national education and training for duplication of model ‘best practices’ for women who have survived lives of addiction and prostitution
Works In
United States
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