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Together, We Can Change The Odds

For over 20 years, Thistle Farms has helped women survivors overcome the odds.
This movement is about how together we change those odds.

It Takes A Community To Heal Broken Systems

None of the women that Thistle Farms serves ended up on the streets by themselves.

Long before we criminalize marginalized women, many have already known the short side of justice, the backside of anger, the underside of bridges, and the dark side of our country that still turns its back on child sexual abuse, criminalizes juvenile runaways, and accepts the violence of the human construct of "poverty”.

The issue of human trafficking is linked to a complacent society. One that is willing to tolerate the treatment of our sisters, either buying into the myths that they choose that life or that things will change without action.

Becca Stevens - Thistle Farms Founder & President

Love Is The Most Powerful Force For Change In The World

We want to address the root causes of commercial sexual exploitation. We want to rise up against systems that commoditize, criminalize, and abuse women. Together, we can make the world safer and more just.

Policy Priorities

The tangled web of systems can seem daunting. With a focused approach to impact, we believe we will create change.

Vulnerabilities and Sexual Exploitation

Addressing the systems that commodify the marginalized and vulnerable. 

Normalization of the Sex Trade

Normalization emboldens buyers to enter the market and increases trafficking to meet buyer demand. 

Availability and Accessibility of Services

Mitigating the harms and impacts of sexual exploitation, accessible services must be universally available.

Impacts of Criminalization on Survivors

Decriminalizing survivors in increments - in ways that protect survivors and hold traffickers and buyers accountable.

Justice and Accountability

From traffickers, to buyers, to corporations who profit - we believe increased accountability will provide survivors more pathways to justice. 

Recommendations for Continued Education and Resources

Book and Video List

Alisa Bernard

Director of Public Policy and Advocacy

Collaborators & Allies

AF3RM Asian Women for Equality Coalition Against Prostitution International Demand Abolition Ending Exploitation Collaborative The Life Story The New Abolitionists National Center for Missing & Exploited Children New Yorkers for the Equality Model Polaris Prostitution Research & Education

Change Begins With Introspection

Change at the community and cultural levels originates from personal reflection and change. Activism and advocacy must be rooted in personal conviction, requiring reflection on our own positionality within these issues and sustainability as a unified movement.

Evelina Giobbe Founder of Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt (WHISPER) and Survivor

The Intersection of

Exploitation & Marginalization

Exploitation does not just impact women in the sex trade, it impacts all women. Its very existence means that society deems some women disposable and some not, and all women are subject to that societal judgment.

We see this show up when advertisers use women as props, films portray women as one-dimensional, and violence against us is normalized to just an expectation of our existence.

Fiction From Truth

Sensationalism may spark public interest through shocking images and stories, but it does more harm than good by spreading misinformation and perpetuating stereotypes.

Sex trafficking often involves kidnapping or physically forcing someone into a situation of exploitation.

Traffickers often use subtle coercion, force, and fraud as tools of manipulation. It is often a process of chipping away a person's agency, eroding their sense of self, and replacing it with cycles of abuse and intimidation.

No one I know would buy sex.

It happens in every community by very average people. It could be the person you walk by in a store or the coworker in the cubicle next to you. 

Exploitation and trafficking doesn't happen here.

Sex trafficking occurs in both cities and rural areas. It is extremely underreported in rural areas. Victims may even be trafficked in their own homes.

People are no longer victims if they remain with their abuser without physical restraint.

Often, survivors have been psychologically manipulated and are unable to self-identify. Others may lack the financial means such as transportation, safe housing, or food. Others may be afraid for their safety if they leave.

Listen To Survivors

Here. Dressing. Gone.

These are the text messages I sent to my trafficker multiple times a day, My prison was hotel rooms, and fear was my constant companion. It’s curious what one thinks of in times like these, and I’m grateful for my ability to imagine myself somewhere else. 

Each day my prayer was to survive until the next. I did this by finding tiny beautiful miracles throughout the day. They came in the form of extra-fancy hotel shampoo, the sun warming a window allowing me to feel its bright light, the long-forgotten children’s songs that played through my head, or the Bible verse that I couldn’t quite remember the whole thing, but I did remember the part that says, “I know the plans I have for you.”

I clung to that. 

There were so many more and if I made a list of the things I am grateful for during that time, it would be endless. I still focus on finding those tiny miracles today, but I’ve come to realize the biggest one is me. For that, I’m most grateful. 

Bobbie

As a child, I was raised in a religious cult.

Girls were to wear long dresses to their ankles, sleeves to their wrists, and buns on top of their heads. No part of our bodies could show what was considered worldly or we would be thrown into the lake of fire. 

When I came to Thistle Farms, I was so broken -- I thought I was beyond repair. I didn’t believe in the concept that Love heals. How could it? I never knew love to give love. 

As time has passed, something inside of me has awakened. I am overwhelmingly drawn to the concept now that maybe, just maybe, love truly does heal everybody. In all my brokenness, I will be made whole. And now, I wake up every day humbly grateful.

Anonymous

My whole life I have been in abusive relationships.

All of them were physically, emotionally, and mentally abusive. I never knew anything other than being treated like I was nothing. I didn’t have any self-worth. All I was to those men was a toy that they could manipulate and use for their own personal agendas.  

When I entered the Thistle Farms Residential Program, I  started to work on myself and heal from my past. I was able to tap into a part of myself that I didn’t know existed. I learned how to love myself. I learned that I was a strong woman who deserved nothing but the best in this world. I didn’t need a man or anyone to validate me. I didn’t need the pain and suffering that I thought was the only way I was ever going to live.  

I am grateful for the past lessons of the horrible relationships. I  wouldn’t be as strong, courageous, and a total badass if it wasn’t for them and for me to learn from. I welcome the past lessons, as they have shaped and molded me into the woman I am today. I  know today that I can have a zero-tolerance policy for BS and that is okay. I am grateful for the gift to celebrate my past lessons today by holding my head and standards high.  

Anonymous

It started when I was 9 years old.

My sister, our parents, and I were hit by a drunk driver, and that wreck killed my sister, but I lived.

I have a scar from it on my elbow. A daily reminder that it should have been me. My other scar was from being cut on my upper arm with a steak knife. I have a scar on my forehead from being around the wrong people and a situation that ended with my getting a gun banged against my forehead. The scar that’s on my chest is a daily reminder of how stupid my decisions were in my early 20s, decisions that have led me to have heart surgery.

These are my survivor scars. Today I am not embarrassed or ashamed. I live in my body.

Kristina

It was a cold day 5 years ago.

I was on drugs and couldn’t stop and didn’t want to stop. I had grown up with drugs, and this was the world I knew.

Once in the middle of the night, I had a fight out in front of a crack house. I was shot in my lower back; then I shot my boyfriend, who died later. I went to jail and stayed in for three days. I ended up bonding out with my dad’s help.

He introduced me to a sister of Thistle Farms and that is how I found my way into the community. The women of the circle were such an inspiration to me and taught me how to let go of my past, accept the mercy offered to me, and grieve everything I loved that I had lost.

Tracey

Education Is Key

Resources to help unpack the complexities surrounding exploitation.

Filters
Accessibility of Services Impacts of Criminalization International Justice & Accountability Normalization of the Sex Trade Survivor Leadership Vulnerabilities & Sexual Exploitation
‘A Lady Without a Face’: A Trafficking Survivor Shares a Renewed View of Womanhood

Verilymag

Brenda Myers-Powell reconnects with her lost identity in ‘Leaving Breezy Street’
Why It's So Hard to Stop Illegal Massage Businesses

11Alive

Sex trafficking within massage parlors has raised eyebrows for decades. An 11Alive Reveal Investigation talks with one woman who escaped.
Texas Attorney General Investigates TikTok for Potential Child Privacy Violations and Facilitation of Human Trafficking

The National Law Review

 The CIDs request that TikTok describe its content review practices, including the company’s procedures for identifying and removing content for child safety purposes.
There Are Widespread Reports of Sex Trafficking, So Why No Convictions?

Civil Beat

Few state resources have been dedicated to combatting traffickers.
Documentary Made in Metro Detroit Focuses on Demand of Human Trafficking

WXYZ-TV Detroit

A new movie about human trafficking made right here in metro Detroit has now been released to the public.
Author Rachel Moran on Her Life as Prostituted Woman

Independent.ie

Rachel talks about the dangerous glamorisation of sex work, her struggle with drug addiction and the legal battle that vindicated her story of survival.
See More

It Takes Action To Create Change

Activism and advocacy isn’t limited to an age, demographic or platform. Greta Thunberg was 15 when she protested outside of the Swedish Parliament for further environmental protections. Gloria Steinem was 85 when she protested Pornhub’s pop-up shop in New York in 2017.

Advocacy Updates

Subscribe to news about our advocacy work and ways you can help.

Use Your Voice

A single candle lights up the darkest night. A single petition signed, email to a legislator, or social graphic shared is momentum in our movement.

Filters
availability and accessibility of services impacts of criminalization on survivors justice and accountability normalization of the sex trade vulnerabilities and sexual exploitation

Tell Congress to Increase Funding for Trafficking Survivors

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office and the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS) are critical initiatives that allow organizations to continue bringing services to survivors. 

Trafficking Survivors Housing Act

Individuals experiencing unstable housing situations are at higher risk of being trafficked. Safe and affordable housing is necessary for trafficking survivors to heal and recover from exploitation. 

The Earn It Act

The most important child protection legislation before Congress in 2022. It creates protection for exploited children and accountability for  those who exploit them.

Support Tennessee's Voting Rights Restoration

In Tennessee, the incarceration rate is 10% above the U.S. average. More than 450,000 people have their right to vote suppressed by some of the most complex guidelines in the country.  

End the Third Party Control Requirement in Sex Trafficking Laws

Child sex trafficking victims often must be identified as victims before they can access resources and legal protection. Requiring proof of third party control obstructs proper identification of victims and places an unjust burden on child victims to meet before being provided access to services.

Closing the Law Enforcement Consent Loophole Act

This important legislation makes it a crime for law enforcement to engage in a sexual act while acting under color of law. Most law enforcement officers would never do this, but there are enough instances that warrant the need for accountability.

Anti-Racism in Public Health Act

Help address racism in our health care systems.

Show a survivor you care

Leave a note of love and affirmation for a survivor. These messages will be shared with the residents and graduates of our residential program to encourage and uplift.

Leave a Message

Speak your truth

Sharing and amplifying your story may be a powerful part of your healing journey. 

Share your story

Take the Pledge

Love is the most powerful force for change in the world. Pledge to end violence and exploitation through small and great acts of love. 

Sign now

Thistle Farms Network

Connect with a Local Sanctuary

We are proud to partner with over 90 organizations around the country that create healing, hope, and freedom for women survivors.

Browse Network Directory

Become a Social Media Advocate

Browse a library of informative graphics to share in your own profiles.

Share: Poverty Makes Just Effect A Pimp
Share - Overcome the odds
Share - Trauma Informed Vocabulary
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