The good news is there is hope for women returning from prison and there are organizations willing to assist. When she is released from prison on May 6, 2013, Kay hopes to be paroled into a Nashville program called Magdalene. Magdalene is two-year residential program for women who have survived lives of abuse, addiction and prostitution. Magdalene was founded in 1997 by the Rev. Becca Stevens on the premise that a loving community could be more powerful than all of the forces that drive women to the streets. The program is completely funded by generous donors in the community and grants but does not receive state or federal funds. Magdalene reports its residents and graduates experience transformative, sustainable change through long-term, rent-free housing, treatment, case management, education, training and opportunities for employment. (thistlefarms.org)The program is thought to be unique in the United States in providing women from the streets both a comprehensive, long-term residential program for recovery and a sustainable social enterprise for permanent employment (www.thistlefarms.org).Magdalene does not specifically target women in state prisons who are close to being released into the community but rather focuses on women coming directly from the streets. Since its inception 15 years ago, the Magdalene program in Nashville has helped more than 100 women leave the streets and successfully complete the Magdalene program.Magdalene cites the success rate for women in their program at sixty-eight percent. Of the more than 100 graduates of the program, 68 are clean and sober; they are employed and have a place to live (www.thistlefarms.org). Magdalene has found that addicted women with a history of prostitution or trafficking do not succeed in traditional drug treatment centers, halfway houses or shelters because the underlying factor behind their addiction, childhood sexual abuse, is not addressed. They relapse, return to the street and ultimately are jailed again. Most women in the Magdalene program have lengthy criminal histories, primarily misdemeanors for prostitution primarily due to their repeated return to the streets when released from jail. They are rearrested time and time again and the cycle continues. One-hundred percent of the women report having been raped while working as prostitutes. Magdalene reports women in its program heal from addiction as well as their common experience of rape. Magdalene operates six transition houses in the Nashville community. The program functions without 24-hour staff, relying instead on the residents and the strength of their recovery community to maintain their homes and uphold program rules. Women new to the program are given a key to the house they will live in and told that for the next two years people from Nashville and beyond will freely and lovingly support their efforts to maintain recovery, heal from childhood wounds, and find and keep stable employment and safe housing. In addition, the women obtain life skills programming, vocational training and job placement, full and part-time management level employment, and asset building for economic independence through matched savings opportunities and a financial literacy program. While national statistics for success with women in similar programs tend to range from 30-40 percent, Magdalene’s has remained above 68 percent since inception. Magdalene attributes its statistical success to providing a long-term, disciplined, and compassionate community where women have the opportunity to heal from deep wounds that date back to childhood. (Stevens, 2008).Magdalene is expanding nationally and internationally with large numbers of individuals and groups seeking to duplicate their model in their own communities. In cities such as St. Louis, New Orleans, Chattanooga and Charleston, future Magdalene homes are being planned. Magdalene has also formed cooperatives with organizations in several African countries (www.thistlefarms.org).Magdalene was founded by a woman whose own history of childhood sexual abuse led her to seek solutions for women on the streets. Rev. Becca Stevens is widely respected for her work and was honored in October 2011 as a “Champion of Change” at the White House for her efforts to end violence against women. Locally, Rev. Stevens has been named Nashvillian of the Year by the Nashville Scene, Tennessean of the Year by the Tennessean newspaper; and the Nashville chapter of the YWCA inducted her into the Academy of Women of Achievement in 2001. In 2005, she was given the DuBose Award for Service by the School of Theology at the University of the South. That same year, the Bank of America honored Magdalene with a Local Hero award.