Love Heals Every Body

She was drawn to help women survivors of sex trafficking. Her work also led to a reckoning with her own painful past.

- Becca Stevens

I’M THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF Thistle Farms, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Nashville that helps women heal from sex trafficking and drug and alcohol addiction. Thistle Farms owns five houses in Nashville where women seeking freedom from the sex trade, prison and addiction live rent-free for up to two years with access to free medical care, counseling, education and job training. More than two thirds of residents have remained clean and sober for at least two and a half years after moving in. We have helped open more than 30 similar homes around the country.

Thistle Farms also operates several social justice enterprises that make and sell clothes and all-natural home and body-care products, run a cafe, operate a retail store and manage more than 25 global partners in a shared trade network since our inception 17 years ago. The businesses brought in more than three million dollars last year, and more than 65 percent of the staff are women who have escaped the sex trade and other forms of abuse and punishment. One of our newest employees said that this was the first time in her life she sat down for dinner with a group of people who talked about their day. For her, going to work, coming home to dinner and getting up in the morning to a daily meditation were brand-new experiences.

I’ve been an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church for 27 years. But I didn’t start the residential community of Thistle Farms for a church. For a long time, I didn’t even know why I felt so compelled to reach out to help struggling women.

I’ve come to learn that healing is never a one-way street. I started Thistle Farms because I needed to. The women who live in the homes and work together consider this organization a refuge. I’ve come to see it’s mine too.