When Women Lead: Keeping Body & Home Running

Behind the doors of a simple warehouse in West Nashville, there is daily transformation happening in the setting of a manufacturing facility. As you walk down the hallway, the smell of lavender welcomes you followed by the sound of music over the speakers, warm conversation, and laughter. It’s not your average manufacturing program; it is where the Thistle Farms’ meaningful job training starts and where women survivors of sexual exploitation take steps towards the kind of career and life they want.

The Director of Operations, Ty, Warehouse Manager, Diana, and Logistics Manager, Shamika, are women who lead at Thistle Farms in an industry where women are consistently underrepresented, accounting for only 30% of the manufacturing workforce.

All three leaders started as residents training at Body & Home and have grown into the organizational leaders they are today.

“I like the fact that people can see where I was and where I am now, and that things are possible. If you want something bad enough to work for it, you can take your life and make something that is beautiful and productive,” Diana shared. “Without Thistle Farms, this would have never been possible for me. No matter how bad I wanted it, the opportunities without Thistle Farms were just not there.”

Ty reflected how when she was a resident, she would watch the graduates come back from work in their cars or go home to their own apartments, and it gave her momentum to see where her life could go.

“To start off as being the candle pourer, and pour my whole heart into it, into the candle, and to watch the women, the graduates before me, have different positions - I just knew that it could be possible for me.”

Not only have Ty, Diana, and Shamika grown at Thistle Farms, Thistle Farms has continued to grow with this approach. The program that started in a church basement hand pouring candles and has grown into a 22,000 square foot facility with inventory from Shared Trade partners around the globe and producing nearly $5M worth of product each year.

How is it possible? Simple, it’s in the mission.

“This is the way we live, and this is the way that we love.”

The mission “Love Heals” often brings up questions about what that means in action. At Body & Home, it’s in the collective care of community.

“It was love that healed me because from the beginning it was shown to me,” Shamika said.

Diana emphasized that it’s not just about loving each other, it’s about the fact that a woman at Thistle Farms is loved without expectation.

“I had never been loved by people that didn’t want anything from me. I had never been loved by people that I didn’t have anything to give them. It changed everything for me.”

Part of putting the mission of “Love Heals” into action is the trauma-informed approach implemented across all teams. Healing takes time, and the workplace should foster space and safety for that.

“Patience is one of the biggest things we do around here,” Ty said. “I’m glad we hold onto people. I’m glad someone held onto me.”

“If we hit the lottery, we still are going to come to work”

While work might fill practical needs for many, at Thistle Farms it’s more than the work: its community.

Ty, Diana, Shamika laughed that they would still be coming to work if money was not a factor and they won the lottery.

“We might be coming in a little sharper!” Diana laughed. “But we would still be coming in.”

The success of their leadership isn’t just measured in sales and shipping goals. It’s every milestone reached by the next resident coming through the training program. The leadership at Body & Home can be best summarized by their deep friendship for one another, their care for each woman walking in the door, and their deep belief that love truly heals. Shamika, who celebrated a promotion into a leadership role this year, emphasized that failure is not possible in a community like this.

The mission works because of the people who work here.

“You can show other people, it works. It’s not some gimmick, it’s not something we say. You can’t not win. So many people are wanting you to win. Just do the next right thing and you got this. The mission worked.”