Join Us
March 29 - 31, 2022
Sharing Wisdom. Celebrating Stories. Discovering Strategies.
Starting and growing an organization can be challenging. At our National Network Conference, you will encounter powerful learning and support by looking to underused resource: each other.
You will discover best practices from a roster of inspiring speakers. Just as important, you will be seen and heard as you access deep wisdom of our community in areas ranging from strategy development to fundraising.
As we turn to each other, you will find shared learning, strategic insight, and care for the spirit. Bring your story and an open heart.

Registration Is Now Closed
Registration does not include accommodations. The conference property, Hotel Preston, is recommended. The rate is $129/night. Book with the link above to have the $10/day amenity fee waived.
Breakout Sessions
Speakers

Becca Stevens
Author, Speaker, and Founder of Thistle Farms

Dr. Kit Evans-Ford
Author, Trainer, and Founder of a Social Enterprise for Women Survivors

Yevette Christy
Survivor, Author, and Speaker

Becca Stevens
Author, Speaker, and Founder of Thistle Farms
After experiencing the death of her father and subsequent child abuse when she was 5, Becca longed to open a sanctuary for survivors offering a loving community. In 1997, five women who had experienced trafficking, violence, and addiction were welcomed home.
She leads important conversations across the country by speaking, writing, and heading a national network of like-minded organizations. She has established 10 justice enterprises and helped raise more than $55M dollars for social justice causes.
Becca has been featured in the New York Times, on ABC World News and NPR, was recently named a 2016 CNN Hero and a White House “Champion of Change." She was featured in the PBS documentary, A Path Appears, named Humanitarian of the Year by the Small Business Council of America and inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame.
She attended the University of the South and Vanderbilt Divinity School and has been conferred four honorary doctorates.

Dr. Kit Evans-Ford
Author, Trainer, and Founder of a Social Enterprise for Women Survivors
Dr. Kit Evans-Ford has been a trainer and activist for 14 years working relentlessly in the areas of nonviolence education and assisting people in healing from violence and abuse.
She is an author and the founder of Argrow’s House of Healing and Hope, a successful social enterprise where women healing from violence and abuse are provided free resources and the opportunity to create beautiful bath products that provide a living wage.
Dr. Kit has studied, worked, and served in England, Japan, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis. She now serves as one of the lead organizers of Campaign Nonviolence for Action Outreach Organizer at Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. She has led in organizing thousands of peace actions around the world.
Dr. Kit is a Teach for America and United States Peace Corps Alumni and holds a BA in Communications Studies, a MA in Teaching: Special Education, MA in Social Justice and Community Development, MDiv degree, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Spiritual Direction from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL.

Yevette Christy
Survivor, Author, and Speaker
Yevette has been called many things: a powerful speaker, compassionate, and insightful, but the one characteristic that speaks most profoundly of her is her indomitable spirit.
Her memoir, entitled Whore, A Sex Worker’s Journey, is about childhood drug addiction, sexual trauma, domestic violence, and murder, which led to a brutal and corrosive life of prostitution, and how she emerged from such a life with a profound call to the work of spiritual wholeness, communal awareness and social change.
When so many women never make it out, Yevette has beat the odds, and she’s not done yet. She is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and a doctoral candidate at Brite Divinity School, where she is developing The Reclamation Project, a grass-roots organization that will help others to serve, see, and hear the women in their communities that walk on the margins, literally.
Agenda
Sessions, speakers, and music performances are subject to change.
- March 28
- March 29
- March 30
- March 31
March 28

Optional
Monday, March 28
5:00 PM - Optional Early Registration and Reception
- Drinks and Hors d'oeuvres
- Thistle Farms Marketplace
March 29

Day 1
Tuesday, March 29
8:00 AM - Registration and Breakfast
9:00 AM - Musical Performance by Global Education Center Drummers
9:15 AM - Morning Welcome
9:45 AM - Taking the Freedom Train to New Places - Becca Stevens
11:15 AM - Global Panel
12:15 PM - Lunch
12:55 PM - Musical Performance by Grace Maher
1:15 PM - The Remnant Project - Andrea Hart
1:40 PM - Getting on the Freedom Train - Yevette Christy
3:30 PM - Talking Circles
3:30 PM - Marketplace
6:00 PM - Dinner | Music by The Bittersweets and Inversion Vocal Ensemble
March 30

Day 2
Wednesday, March 30
7:00 AM - Breakfast
8:00 AM - Meditation Circle
9:00 AM - Morning Welcome
9:15 AM - Identifying Policy Priorities - Alisa Bernard
10:15 AM - Musical Performance by Emily West
10:35 AM - Riding on the Freedom Train - Dr. Kit Evans-Ford
11:45 AM - Lunch
1:10 PM - Breakout Sessions
2:15 PM - Trans Survivors + the Right to Exit - Esperanza Fonseca
3:30 PM - Breakout Sessions
4:35 PM - From Thorns to Thriving: Tools and Techniques for Trauma-Informed Culture - Courtney Sobieralski and Kaylee Noel
5:30 PM - Marketplace
6:00 PM - Dinner and “Thistle” Documentary
March 31

Day 3
Thursday, March 31
7:00 AM - Breakfast
8:00 AM - Meditation Circle
8:45 AM - Morning Welcome
9:10 AM - Breakout Sessions
10:10 AM - A Shared Heart and Mind: Learning From Each Other - David Hutchens
11:00 AM - Taking the Freedom Train Home - Becca Stevens, Levi Hummon, and Marcus Hummon