MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Thistle and Bee is a non-profit that's modeled after their sister program, Thistle Farms, in Nashville. It's a two-year residential wrap-around services program for women survivors of human trafficking and addiction.
The women that are accepted into the program live in housing called "The Hive". In the program, women participate in the 12 steps that they need if addiction is an issue. They're provided all the mental health assistance that they need, any physical and dental needs, as well as job training and financial literacy.
Thistle and Bee provides a safe environment so women can focus on moving their lives forward.
In addition, women can participate in a social justice enterprise where they maintain and care for beehives throughout Memphis and harvest honey.
From the honey, the women produce honey products, including jarred honey, granola, soaps, lip balms, and hot tea.
Thistle and Bee CEO Autumn Chastain said working with the bees can be therapeutic.
"Part of caring for the bees is remaining calm and facing fears, but that mirrors life. You're going to have those stressors and those chaotic moments where you get caught up in the chaos or the fear, and you have to remain calm," she said. "Remaining calm keeps everybody else in function and moving forward and in process. That's important in a hive, and it creates the strength of the hive. And that's exactly what they do together."
Chastain said this is an exciting new year coming out of the pandemic.
"It's given us an opportunity to step back and see where we can focus, where need is, and where growth can be," she explained. "For example, in the social justice enterprise, not only are we expanding our products, but we've decided that in addition to our online store, we're going to work towards developing a corporate gift program to reach out to companies that want to send holiday gifts and things and letting the women take ownership of that process."
She said her hope is that a lot of the survivors will come on as full-time employees at Thistle & Bee.
"Because what better example of success than those that stay and grow the base, grow the hive, so that we can help more and more survivors," said Chastain.
Thistle and Bee currently has a waitlist of women and not enough beds to house them. The organization is fundraising to be able to purchase a second property, and it hopes to establish a transitional living home that provides safe, affordable housing options as women transition out of the program.
They have two big fundraising events planned this year. In June, they'll host a virtual honey tasting, and in September they'll have a Honey Harvest with an outdoor concert.
All Thistle and Bee products are sold in their online shop. You can also find them at farmer's markets and several retailers and restaurants around town.