- [Narrator] Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- On today's show, we'll learn about two impactful organizations dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in our community.

We're stronger together, Chattanooga.

So stay tuned to learn more.

(bright rock music) I'm Barbara Marter.

Thank you for joining us.

We're pleased to have with us today Mimi Nikkel, founder of "Love's Arm" outreach.

As you know, Chattanooga is a nexus for interstate travel, connecting the East Coast and the Midwest, and sex trafficking activity is a real problem in our city.

Mimi is making a tremendous difference in the lives of women.

Mimi, thank you for being here with us today.

Why "Love's Arm?"

- Well, the name "Love's Arm" comes from a passage of scripture in Isaiah 59:1 and it says, "The arm of the Lord is not too short to deliver, nor is his ear too deaf to hear."

- So can you tell me your story?

- I will.

I have to read this.

I wrote a little survivor's manifesto.

I've been fighting all of my life, fighting my way out of the dark, out of the chains, out of the shame.

Fighting my way into hope ignited by love, real, true, and immensely healing.

No one has ever done for me what only God could do.

Love so radically explosive, it shattered the stone walls of the tomb I built around myself in the cold dark places of my soul.

I became a survivor as a child when for years on end, I was sexually violated, exploited, sold, and passed around to satisfy the guilty pleasures of men.

How did it affect me?

Only God knows the picture painted on that massive canvas.

What I do know is sexual trauma for me twisted every thought, word, indeed.

Hidden inside my heart.

It messed me up beyond recognition and it's taken decades to find the sweet kind soul of that little girl again.

But I found her through the battles, I found her through the pain, I found her in the hope ignited by love that's healed my soul in ways I could never imagine.

She is strong, she is wise, she loves and fights hard, and she knows she is alive and will never be the same.

You can shame me, you can mock me, you can blame me, but you can't undo what love has done and you can't stop me from being enough for me.

The chains are broken, the twisted places are straight, and the path of life is paved by grace with mercy and love unending.

That's my story.

I am a survivor myself.

And so in 2005, I came to Chattanooga in 2004 and 2005, started going into the jail here and leading classes, Bible study classes with the women there.

And one came out, we had an after prayer group, she came out and she said, "I wanna go back out to the streets and let the women out there know God loves them.

But I'm afraid to go by myself."

And it just came out of me, "I will go with you."

And that began our street outreach and now we have been doing this work in Chattanooga for 17 years.

- [Barbara] Wow.

- And we have six programs.

We have a team of 73 trained volunteers that work with us and so we see this work as the work of offering hope and deliverance to women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction.

And the conduit for that and the conduit for our engagement with them is prayer.

- And love.

- [Mimi] And love.

- Because now they're genuinely seeing someone love them and seeing that young child inside of them, that innocent child inside of them, and that's coming out and everything.

- That's our desire is that that child come alive within them, that they find their voice and they're able to once again dream, pursue their dreams, and growing a life worth loving.

- So when we talk about prostitution, and it's rampant here in Chattanooga and it's in all cities, what is the age that you're seeing the beginnings of?

- Well, according to the justice department, Department of Justice of the United States, the average age now is 15.

The average stage of entry into trafficking and prostitution activity is 18.

I mean 15, excuse me.

And so there is a continuum related to that and it's proven that a woman, a girl, is only deemed useful in this activity as a product to be sold for about seven years.

After seven years of being engaged in this kind of activity, they're deemed useless by their pimps, traffickers, patrons.

And many times, they can be killed or they are just put out.

We call it being kicked to the curb.

They're put out on the street to fend for themselves.

And so they're in, many of them fall into a trap of street prostitution, homelessness, constantly chronic trauma in which they're just simply trying to survive and doing the best they can to provide for their addictions many times and to just manage staying alive every day.

- Because while they were in that servitude with their pimp or whatever, they've become reprogrammed because then that's all they know.

And then when they're kicked to the curb, a lot of 'em have the drug abuse and everything because that's the only way you can get through each day because reality hurts too much.

So where does your ministry come in?

- We come in in the streets, in the jails, in the motels.

We meet people where they are.

We go to them.

So we have five street outreaches a month.

- [Narrator] Oh wow.

- That we go into the streets of Chattanooga.

We've got about a 12 mile area we cover and there's different points of entry that are stronger in Chattanooga than others, so we are in those areas and we meet women who may be working on the streets.

We engage them in conversation, we make simple offerings to them of food, drink, clothing, hygiene, we offer 'em condoms, we care about their health, and we engage in conversations and build trust and love with them.

And over a period of time, they know where to go when they're ready.

- And they have to be ready.

It has to be their decision.

It can't be forced upon them.

- Correct.

And we don't call ourselves a rescue organization.

People many times don't understand that term, but when you present yourself as a rescuer, you're saying you have power over someone and they need you and are dependent on you to rescue them, to bring them of a place of coming out, but it doesn't say anything about their ongoing processes.

So we are not a rescue organization.

We don't see ourselves as the heroes.

- You're just an outreach.

- We're an outreach.

We go and we meet people where they are.

We engage with them from a basic human level, that we're just as human as you are.

We're all flawed and imperfect and we're here to love and care about you and to offer you healthy relationships.

- So the the prison ministry, is that just Bible studies or?

What all is that that you do?

- Well, we have different forms.

We have two groups that go in and we still lead those Bible studies in the jail here and we have a ready writers team that connects with the women who want to be written to, and they send cards and prayer and encouragement into women.

Just that soft touch.

That's the only way to communicate with the outside world, is for people who are incarcerated is still the mail, so we have that option opened up.

We also, I serve as a peer, as a trauma survivor, sexual trauma survivor peer for the Hamilton County Mental Health Court.

- [Barbara] Oh wow.

- So I go in with the therapist from the mental health court and lead a trauma group with the women there as well as lead a peer support group for women who are sexual trauma survivors.

- Rahab's.

- Rahab.

- Rahab, I could never say that right.

It's "Rahab's Rest."

What is that?

- "Rahab's Rest" is a 18 to 24 month cost-free holistic recovery home for women desiring to exit this life and to find life worth living.

And so it's a very structured program holistic in care.

and we partner with local agencies and providers in caring for their needs to where they receive free healthcare, they receive mental health provision, emotional care, they get a therapist, a trauma therapist assigned to 'em.

So they're receiving care in every single way, body, soul, and spirit.

And we provide for that.

It's cost-free for them to stay there.

- [Barbara] Wow.

- When they reach six months, they can move into part-time employment.

After a year, they can move into full-time employment, all in a process of them finding the power within themselves to move and learn to live life in different ways.

And it's a beautiful program.

We built it on the foundation of the "Magdalene House" of Thistle Farms.

- And speaking of Thistle Farms, that's your sister network.

- [Mimi] Yes.

- So how did you get involved with them?

- I went into a conference at Thistle Farms in 2016 and at that conference, very much saw how the organizations were very similar in what we did.

And later on, I went to a training over there that same year and they approached us and said, "We'd like for you to come into our sister network."

And so we've entered into the sister network, been an active part of it now for six years, and are thrilled.

It's a wonderful network.

We have 64 organizations throughout the country who are all doing the same work of providing cost-free housing, educational and employment assistance and sustainability to women survivors in a trauma-informed way.

- Wow.

You have a 24/7 helpline?

- We do.

It's a helpline.

We call it a helpline and not a hotline because what we do through there is when someone calls that line, calls that number, they hear a warm touch on the other end of the phone and there's someone there who cares and will listen, help assess what their needs may be, and then we offer 'em resources.

They may want to apply for our residential homes, so we send them to the website to fill out that application.

They may need assistance with housing, with food, some other sort of assistance and we have resources that we provide for them and help them find that path to go down in order to reach, to get the assistance they need.

- I will admit, you have an awesome website.

So our viewers that are interested in learning more about "Love's Arm" or volunteering or the helpline or any of that, they can get more information from your website, correct?

- Yes ma'am.

We try to make our website as comprehensive as possible.

Someone called me last night and said, "Your website is so great."

Because everything related to "Love's Arm," you can find out what we do, who we are, why we do it, and have all of the links available to you.

You can go to our store.

We have an online eCommerce store where that you can shop through.

We would love for people to use that and to go shopping because the jobs, we will be providing jobs for women coming through our house in that online store.

So that is our sustainable employment model.

We have our volunteer tab where people can sign up and fill out a volunteer application.

- Mimi, thank you so much for coming in today and for helping make this a better community for all of us.

We'll be back in a moment with Erika Burnett from the "Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga."

Stay with us.

- [Barbara Voiceover] We wanna know how you serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering and we may feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger@wtcitv.org or use the #strongerWTCI on social media.

- Welcome back.

Erika Burnett is here.

She's the Executive Director of the "Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga."

The organization unites efforts for social change, improving life for women and girls across the region.

They advocate for issues and legislation that contribute to the safety, stability, health, and independence of women in our state.

Welcome, Erika.

- Thank you.

- I'm so glad to have you here with us - It's wonderful to be here.

Thank you.

- So tell me, what is the "Women's Fund?"

What does it do, why does it do it, and how does it do it?

- Absolutely.

- That's a lot.

(Barbara chuckling) - It's a big question.

So the "Women's Fund," our mission, you pretty much summed it up.

We identify and address the root causes of issues that are having the most impact on the quality of lives for women and girls across our state.

And so we do that primarily in three ways, we sort of talk about our work in three buckets.

One, we identify those issues that don't have a champion already.

So we don't wanna duplicate efforts.

We know that in this sector, especially with limited resources and capacity, we wanna make sure that we're identifying unique issues, sort of being able to dive deeper.

And I think about the visual of a tree.

We wanna address what's happening at the root of the tree, not the fruit.

We also make sure that we designate that we are advocates and not politicians.

It is not our job to identify what side of an aisle someone wants to be on.

Instead, we actually work across all of those differences, all of those barriers because we know when it comes to the quality of life for women and girls, that's not a political issue.

It's oftentimes politicized, but your health and wellbeing are absolutely not issues that should be in that political realm.

And then finally, we think about changing laws.

So we do that both proactively, identifying bills, pieces of legislation that we can identify senators to support and rally behind us and propose those bills, but most importantly, I believe we also collaborate with our many partners across the city and state that have a hyper-focused lane, I like to think about, when it comes to women and girls' issues and then we leverage our resources, our networks, our ability to persuade those in power align with those bills.

- Now, you go to Nashville a lot, don't you?

- We do, we do.

So, when we think about sort of the breadth of our work, I like to talk about both the advocacy with a big A and advocacy with a little A.

And our biggest impact is really at the legislative level, so that's the advocacy with the big A.

Last year, we actually had a record number of laws or bills that we were able to implement.

We had 10, one of them being our proactive piece of legislation, but then we also partner, again, with organizations like the YWCA to help move forth their bill for licensed barbers and beauticians to be trained in domestic violence awareness, right?

Or also think about the ways in which we defend the orders of protection and extend them to a lifetime, There used to be sort of a statute of limitation on them, and working with our "Tennessee Voices for Victims" organization, but I think what excites us the most is when we have an opportunity to look at our local landscape, and I think about advocacy now with a little A.

What are those issues that are most pertinent to our community here locally?

We identified that during the pandemic, many of the organizations that we had partnered with historically, I think about "Girls Inc," or "Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy," and reaching out to them and doing our due diligence as a partner who's thinking about that sort of long-term systemic change.

What we found was there, it was a common theme around lack of access to menstrual hygiene products.

And so we asked ourself why and that's really how we get to the heart of the way we see and move the dial for women and girls across our city and state.

What's really happening, again, what's happening under the Earth and those roots of that tree?

I mean, we're seeing the fruit of it, which is the lack of access to hygiene products, but we wanna dig deeper.

And what we determined is that period product distributors, some of these mass distributors, actually had a bottleneck when it came to their supply chain.

And one of the hurdles for them was actually the lack of liability protection.

So when you and I donate food, for instance, to the food bank or to a church's pantry, there is a good Samaritan law that says we gave in good faith and so we are protected in case something inadvertently happens with that food.

That protection did not extend to items such as feminine hygiene products.

Exactly.

So, we did our research, thought about what can we do to change this from a medical grade product to a product that will allow for that good Samaritan, good faith law to cover it, wrote the bill, found amazing sponsors and Senator Watson and Alexander, and we were able to actually pass that unanimously through both the House and the Senate last legislative season.

So when I think about the breadth of our work, it goes from what are those immediate needs in our community, but then how do we really trace it back to the root cause and address that?

That's where we see systemic change happen.

We know that there are amazing providers who provide those direct services in our community, which is why we support them, but our work dives a little bit further upstream.

- So that's one major win that you did.

Do you have other wins that may not have that much, I don't wanna say significance because I think they're all significant, but maybe targeted a smaller group or?

- So the example I provided earlier about the YWCA, I actually used to work in domestic violence and so when we think about places that individuals who may be in abusive relationships are still typically able to go, there's a few categories.

So we think about hospitals or doctor's offices, right?

And they are trained to be able to recognize some of those signs, ask specific questions.

What comes up in your work, if you're working with that population, is you see that they oftentimes are often able to still go to salons, right?

Their partners want them to look nice.

And so what are the ways in which we can train the individuals to also be aware of some of those signs, broadening the reach of protection for those who could potentially be victims?

And so this bill actually requires that licensed beauticians and barbers receive, I think it's every three or four years, sort of this training on how to recognize signs of domestic violence.

Again, sort of pulling back the veil, right?

We see the symptoms so often in community and the "Women's Fund" is really here to dive a little bit deeper to those causes.

- Wow.

It's an awful lot.

It really is.

So, when you talk about partnerships, CGLA and The Y, are there other nonprofits that you have started working with on their behalf to maybe get some laws changed, like the little A that you were talking about?

- Yes, the little A.

So, we have partners across the city and state that we collaborate with intentionally in different ways.

Some of those partners, again like a "Girls Inc," may not be pushing for a specific piece of legislation, but maybe they want to understand, which Tacora over there is so wonderful and her staff are amazing, that they want to deeply embed advocacy within the curriculum for their girls.

As they're thinking about how girls can be more bold, advocacy comes up for them.

So we actually are able to work with them more on an education level of this is what it looks like to advocate for yourself in the classroom, for parents at this level of the school board so that we're pulling back the veil around what advocacy looks like.

And so that's one sort of level of partnership.

And then we invite folks, if they're willing and interested, to learn more about our "Nightingale Network."

This is our group of collective philanthropists, so these are individuals who have determined that I want my $50, I want my $250, whatever the level of membership that they're able to join the "Nightingale" circle, those dollars go directly to fund organizations here locally that are addressing the fruit, again, of that tree.

So this past year, we were able to provide a $10,000 award to "Family Promise."

And so "Family Promise," specifically the program that we were funding, provides support for up to 10 single mothers, and not just providing housing security, but really wraparound services.

Coaching, access to clothing.

And so, again, addressing not just they need a roof over their heads, but what are the other supports in order to make sure that help support them to not be in that position again?

So this "Nightingale Network" is a great way for community members to learn about the issues in our community while also having a say in how we support and help them by really using that collective model of those dollars.

- One thing that I have noticed and been aware of is the word advocacy.

People don't really understand what it means.

It's politicizing or you're making changes at this level.

It's not.

How do you explain to the audience, the community, what is advocacy and how they can advocate for causes?

How can they get involved?

- Absolutely.

So the advocacy with the big A is, as you said, oftentimes we don't really know what to do with it.

I feel like I don't speak, you know, like politicians, or I don't understand laws in a deep way.

And so we really try to distill it down again to that advocacy with a little A.

There is an issue that there are individuals around me with the power to change or transform this reality.

So how do I uplift this issue in a way that brings you individuals who can support and those who can make the decisions into the fold of understanding the impact of this?

We think about amplifying and elevating those causes that matter that oftentimes are overlooked and presenting them in a way that individuals who have the power to make change are able to see that and proposing sort of what would the world look like if it were to be different for them to currently exist.

So, for me, I think about, again, a parent in a classroom with a child.

Maybe my child is not receiving the support that I believe that they really need in order to be successful.

That is advocacy.

Determining the pipeline and pathway for change for your child, determining what pieces of data or information or narrative you want to bring forth and uplift or highlight, that is advocacy.

And so we all have the ability to identify issues that we are deeply passionate about, do the research, and sometimes research is just having conversations.

So many of our bills that we support are based on the lived experiences of women and girls, hearing the stories.

If we had not asked Dr. Swafford over at CGLA a what's going on with your girls and you're going, "They need pads and tampons," then we wouldn't have been able to secure eight million tampons from Kotex to be distributed within our community.

So I would invite folks to think about joining the "Nightingale Network" in order to learn about the breadth of these issues in our community and then consider the ways in which you would be open to exploring advocacy with a little A.

And we do that through our Advocacy Institute as well as other educational opportunities through our organization.

- Wow.

You have a lot going on.

So much.

Thank you, Erica, so much for coming in today and educating us more on the "Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga."

And then how we can, with a little A, have a voice, speak up, and bring issues that need to be researched because if it's affecting us, it's probably affecting other people, too.

- Absolutely.

Thank you for having me.

- Yeah, thank you.

And thank you for joining us today.

We hope that "Chattanooga Stronger Together" provides new perspectives for viewers like you, who are looking to make a difference in our community.

So let us know what you think.

Email us at stronger@wtcitv.org or use the #strongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter.

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat electronic music) - [Narrator] Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, the Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.