Social Enterprise Helps Women Off The Streets

For women who make their living by selling their bodies on the street, life is full of drugs, disease and despair. A Tennessee-based social enterprise gives these women a chance to recover and learn skills so they never have to return to the streets.

Thistle Farms and its Magdalene program gives former prostitutes two years of free housing, food, medical and dental appointments, therapy, education and job training. This is all achieved without any state of federal funding.

The program has six homes and 27 residents with 24-hour live-in staff who are there to support the women and help with the household chores. The women range in age from 20-50 years old, and many were sexually abused as children, used drugs and alcohol by their early teens, had been arrested an average of 100 times and spent nearly 12 years on the street prostituting.

Magdalene is the housing program and Thistle Farms is the group's social enterprise. The women work at the farm as employees. The farm is used for weddings and wedding receptions throughout the year. The women are also trained in sales and travel the Tennessee area participating in Tupperware with a Conscience parties.

It's similar to a Tupperware party, but Thistle Farms sends a representative and proceeds go back to the farm to help with costs and the Magdalene program. The farm also creates all natural products created by the women at the farm, ranging from wedding favors to body care products.

Thistle Farms and Magdalene is an excellent example of a self-sustaining social enterprise. The women train and earn money through the farm. It even has a savings program, so when the women graduate after two years they have a nest egg to start their new life.

Since the program started in 1997, ¾ of their graduates have remained sober and off the streets. For more information about the program or their products visit their website at www.thistlefarms.org.

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