Non Profit Minute – Beth Messick, Jasmine Road

The Who’s on the Move, BizSC, Non Profit Minute is a quick, one minute interview in support of the amazing impact that local non profits have on our communities.

We would like to thank our sponsors of this video series – The Sisters of Charity Foundation and NP Strategy.

Beth Messick, Executive Director, Jasmine Road

Jasmine Road is a 501(c)3 organization with a mission focused on providing a path to freedom and a haven for healing to local women who are trapped in a cycle of sexual exploitation and addiction. A partnership of Christ Church Episcopal, Triune Mercy Center and Bon Secours, St. Francis Health System, the organization offers a holistic and transformative residential program for adult female survivors of sex trafficking, prostitution and addiction.

Jasmine Road’s program includes two years of rent-free housing, trauma-informed therapy, counseling services, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, physical and behavioral health services, financial literacy classes, as well as life skills and job training. The Greenville based nonprofit which opened its first home in May, is modeled after the very successful Thistle Farms, a community of survivors in Nashville, TN.

With the opening of its new home, Jasmine Road has initiated the healing and recovery for female trafficking survivors, currently an underserved but growing population in the SC Upstate. Prior to Jasmine Road, there were no beds in SC residential treatment/shelters specifically designated for survivors of sex trafficking and prostitution, while hundreds of trafficked women are in the Upstate on any given weekend.

Over time, Jasmine Road plans to add additional houses to increase its footprint to 25 women at any given time. As participants begin to heal in the residential program, they will work in an innovative Social Enterprise scheduled to open in 2019 and designed to assist in the development of employment and social skills that will prepare them to eventually gain employment at a living wage.

Beth Messick, Jasmine Road from MidlandsBiz on Vimeo.