Program lets abused, addicted women start over

NASHVILLE | The Rev. Becca Stevens of Thistle Farms does more than take in abused and addicted down-and-out women and feed them. She teaches them to fish.

In classic biblical tradition, the treatment program of this Earth-mother and Episcopal priest has helped women from across the country heal from their lives of horror and become an integral part of a growing business that sells handcrafted body and spa products across the nation. Their latest contract puts them inside mega-grocer Whole Foods.

Women who used to pound the pavement as prostitutes and drug addicts have been reborn over the last few years as Mrs. Stevens’ program first nurtures them back to health in mind and body. Then they are taught the value of teamwork, responsibility and dedication as they run their own business. Much like their namesake, the tough little thistle, they have persevered to survive.

“There’s this myth in the criminal justice system, that these women ultimately will manipulate you, they’ll use you and relapse and should be written off, that they aren’t worth saving,” says Mrs. Stevens, founder of Thistle Farms.

“Here, watching them doing the work, gives me permission to be hopeful again. I look around at them and go ‘Oh, my goodness, women recover” says Mrs. Stevens, 45, as the ladies of Thistle Farms work around her packing boxes and affixing labels to jars and bottles.

“We see women who seem at first like they are half-dead just resurrect. … Here, we want to love them back … and I think they learn more from mercy than from justice.”

Many of the women in the group praise Mrs. Stevens as saving them from certain death. They say they are trying to stay focused on the program that they call God-sent after years of turning tricks, taking drugs and tearing apart their families.

As they gather in a meditation circle before each work day, they acknowledge a higher power. A misty rain falls on a chilly morning as they hold hands in a circle, say the Lord’s Prayer and then heed the call of the enthusiastic floor manager: “C’mon y’all. Let’s work.”

They clear the room in a small white donated house behind St. George’s Church in the upscale Belle Meade section of Nashville. In different rooms, they get down to business, fashioning sea-salt scrubs, lip balms and scented hand-poured candles, which fill the house with a comforting, peaceful aroma.

Cynthia Marlow Foster, 41, serves as floor manager at Thistle Farms. She graduated from the program in 2005 after a life filled with drugs, abuse and violence. At 16, her mom abandoned her family, leaving Mrs. Foster with two kids of her own and pregnant with her third child.

“I used moonshine at age 5, weed at 6. I was molested when I was 8. When I was 9 and a half, my dad died in a jailhouse fire,” she said of her battered childhood. “I was angry at the world. I blamed people for all these things that went wrong in my life.”

Mrs. Foster walked out on her own three children as her addiction took hold. “I left my kids by the side of the road. I walked out of their life just like my mom did. I lost all their lives after that.”

At age 37, while working as a prostitute, she entered the Magdalene program and became sober. After her graduation, she continued working at Thistle Farms, where she serves as mentor and manager helping other women confront their past.

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