Episode 25: The Magnolia Ministries with Sara Wilhelm

• Magnolia Ministries
• World Race Year-Round Mission Trip
• Generation 42
• Team at Magnolia Ministries
• Raising a Voice
• Enterprise
• CityGate DC Forum 2026
• Emmy Award-Winning Documentary
• Our New Documentary 2026
• Take a Tour of KARM
• Programs Overview at KARM
  • Click “What We Do” then click each program

Sticky Notes:

• People are nervous around the unhoused population; at the end of the day, they are mothers, sisters, women. Being kind to someone and asking how their day was goes so far.

Interested in learning more about us? Please visit karm.org or reach out to Celia at clively@karm.org today!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hey everybody, welcome to the Home Word Podcast, the show where we illuminate the human stories behind homelessness, redefine what home truly means through real voices, honest conversations, and education that fosters empathy, awareness, and action. Carm is highly rated by Charity Navigator, recognized as a best Christian workplace and a Knoxville top workplace, and accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. We are one of 30 rescue missions in the country rated as excellent and distinguished from Citigate. And most recently, we are an Emmy Award-winning organization with our documentary. You can click the link in the show notes to watch it today. I'm your host, Celia Lively, and I'm on the mic with my new friend Sarah Wilhelm. Sarah is the director of local ministries at the Magnolia Ministries. And today we're talking about the work that Magnolia does, how they serve women in our community, and how it intersects with homelessness. Sarah, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. How are you feeling today? Feeling great. Good, good. So happy to have you here on the show. And you said this is your first time doing a podcast. It is.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Well, so happy that we could have this experience together. Exactly. Okay, so before we get into the work stuff, tell me about Sarah. What do you like to do? Where are you from? All the things. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I'm Sarah Wilhelm. So I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. And kind of what led me to Knoxville is in 2017 I did the world race, and that's a year-long mission trip where you go to 11 different countries over 11 months. And that kind of changed the trajectory of my life. It exposed me to different ministries, different types of humanitarian work all over the world in different countries and different cultural contexts. And from there, I was kind of in and out of the country doing different work, leading different teams. Um, and then I did kind of a follow-up program to that called Generation 42. It was a leadership and discipleship program in Spain, and that's actually where I met my husband James. And so I arrived in Spain in 2020 in March. Oh, and a week later, the world shut down and the pandemic happened. So wild time. Um, but our program, it was nine months. It was three months of classroom training, three months of an internship, then three more months of classroom. And so the first three months, I was quarantined in a house with my husband, who was a stranger at first. By the end of those three months, we knew that we were getting married, which is wild. That's crazy. But initially, my internship was supposed to be continuing some work that I had started on the world race in Rwanda in Africa. But because of the pandemic, they sent us all stateside. And so I was really upset because I really felt the Lord calling me to continue work in Rwanda. And so I told my leadership team, I was like, you guys pray about it. Like wherever you guys feel like I should go. Like, I don't have my heart set on anything other than that. Yeah. Um, you guys just place me where you think is best. And they placed me in Knoxville with Magnolia Ministries. I had absolutely no idea what Magnolia Ministries was. Um, to be honest, I kind of came here kicking and screaming. I was like, same, I thought that I was gonna be doing this work and it felt like that's where I should be. Um and really Magnolia Ministries started in 2019, and they had started in a temporary building, and they had just bought their first home, which was our first real women's center, and they closed on Friday and I got there on Saturday to start my internship. Wow. And so that whole first summer, the three months that I was in Knoxville, was really building out and like starting outreach and like repainting the house, getting the clothing closet started, kind of figuring out what our drop-in center was gonna look like. And within two weeks of being here, and we were doing outreach every single day, just walking up and down Magnolia, talking to women, and just really getting to know women's stories and hearing, you know, what they have walked through and seeing so much of my story in theirs. It like the Lord just like obliterated my heart for this community, and it was very clear that this was actually where I was supposed to be. And so my at the time boyfriend James came and visited, and Katie and Will, our founders, sat us down and were like, okay, guys, we feel like this is where you guys should be. Yeah, we would love for y'all to move here full-time once you're done with the program. And so in February of 21, we moved here full-time. And we absolutely love Knoxville. It just, especially coming from Texas, where it is hot and hotter. We don't really have seasons, right? And you have to drive hours and hours to get to any type of outdoors. We just love Tennessee. We're such outdoor people, so you get all of that here. Absolutely. Having access to the mountains and so many lakes and rivers. We love to kayak, we love to camp. So we're always outside, exactly. Yeah, and we get seasons. I mean, it's so nice. Like, oh, I love when everything is blooming and the leaves are changing. It just there is nothing like it. I agree. So we absolutely love it. Um, we have a son who is a year and a half. Oh. And so the last year and a half has very been very fun, really just watching him explore and do things through his eyes. Um, taking him to all of our favorite places. And he's such a little outdoor boy, too. So it's been very fun. So typically on the weekends, you'll find us outside.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yes, as you should be. I love that. Of course. I love it. Okay, so if somebody is listening and they don't know anything about the Magnolia Ministries, what would you tell them? Like, what do you guys do if you were to give like an elevator pitch for what y'all do?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

So the short and sweet answer is we exist to serve vulnerable and exploited women in East Knoxville. Um, really how we got started is Katie and Will moved back to Knoxville. Um, they never tell this story. It's pretty wild. They're the coolest people. Yeah. So they got married and they got a grant from the University of South Carolina where they went to school and it was to go overseas for a year. And they visited over 150 anti-trafficking nonprofits across the world. So their whole first year of marriage, they were overseas, just wow seeing what human trafficking looked like in different cultures and different socioeconomic classes, and they knew that's what they wanted to focus on. They weren't sure where it would go from there. But when they moved back to Knoxville after that year, they kind of started looking around the city and trying to see what the gaps were. And so that's kind of where Magnolia started. Yeah. Um, they saw in East Knoxville just a big gap in kind of the unhoused, exploited female population. Um, and so really that's why we exist. A lot of the women that we're serving don't fit into traditional programming, or our average age is about 45 to 60. So we're working with um older women who've been in it for most of their life. And so a lot of women have exited out of programs or you know, don't fit into certain programs, whether it's grant funding or meeting certain criteria. And so that's really where we stand in the gap to serve those women. Women who aren't ready for case management or traditional programming, um, but still deserve to have their basic needs met. Absolutely. So that's really what we are there for, just to be kind of that first point for women to access services in the community.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah, I think that's all on your website that you guys meet women where they are. So, what does that mean to you specifically? Yeah, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

A woman where she is. I think meeting someone where they are is just not having expectation.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Um allowing someone to enter this space and be themselves no matter what they're walking through. So many of our women are still very active in addiction and prostitution and aren't ready for case management or ready to take steps towards housing or whatever it may be. And that's totally fine. Yeah. And so allowing them to have a safe space where they can come in and just be and rest is really, I think, what that means to us. Um, we have women who we always tell a story of one of our first women who ever walked into the center when I was an intern, actually, she literally would not talk to us. She would just get a hot meal and take a nap. And for a year, that's what she did. And that was totally fine. Yeah. And over time we built a relationship, and she's, you know, she's been with us for the last six years and we've walked through different seasons, but just allowing her to come in and be and it be on her terms, right? I think is really what we try and do.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Oh, that's amazing. Of like, I my personality is to go to be like a fixer totally. These are the steps you're gonna take, and we're gonna get you to like I don't sit with someone well because I'm trying to move on.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

That's definitely my natural tendency as well. And so I feel like I've had to learn to just like kind of take a step back. Right. And because at the end of the day, they're grown women, and exactly it has to be their choice. And if they're not ready, they're not ready. Right. And so just allowing them to come and be and take things at their pace, I think, has really changed how we do ministry.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah, I love that. I love that. And I think that that goes right into my next topic is that relationship building. I've heard it said for so many years that ministry happens best in the context of relationships. So why is that so central to what you guys do? Is I mean, you said she was with you guys for a year, came in to take a nap and get a hot meal, but you were still building that trust. So like what does that look like in your ministry day-to-day?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

So one of the things that I'm really grateful for is we're not a grant-funded organization. Yeah. So we most of our staff we all fundraise for our salaries, we are funded by private donors, by our coffee shops. Uh-huh. And so it allows us more flexibility. Right. And so we don't have to, you know, get a certain number of women doing this or doing this. And so we're we we have the space to build that relationship. Yeah. I think as humans, you know, we are built and designed for a relationship, for a community, and for so many of the women that we've been serving, their relationships have been transactional. And so they haven't gotten to feel what that true relationship looks like. And so being able to kind of stand in the gap and allow women to truly feel seen and known and just loved on for who they are. Right. Um, it's really built a foundation of trust and it allows us to serve women better. Yeah. Because we know their stories, we know what they've walked through, and they've really let their walls down and let us kind of walk alongside them. And so I think relationship is just paramount to what we do. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

That's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, I want you to walk me through a woman comes to the Magnolia Center for the first time. What does that look like on her first day? Is it is it closed? Is it a meal? Is it connecting to resources? Like, tell me, walk me through the full thing. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

So when a woman shows up at the center, our door is always locked. Um, just for safety of the women, a lot of women are coming from really hard situations. And so staff are we are the only ones who answer the door. And I really love that because I I really want women to be either greeted by name or be welcomed if it's their first time by someone who is really excited to see them, and someone who can give them a tour and kind of show them around the center, make them feel comfortable and welcomed into this space. Yeah. We've always operated out of a home, and that's been really important to us. Yeah. You know, I don't meet a woman in my office, you're coming into a home. And so it's very cozy. So when you first walk in, a woman rings the doorbell, you're greeted by staff, and you walk directly into the living room. We always have movies on, we have games and puzzles and like coloring books and different things. So our living room is typically pretty full. We have women who stay the full time that we're open. Uh-huh. Um, and then you walk into the kitchen, we have a little coffee station where they can help themselves to coffee or hot tea. Um, we always serve a hot meal when we're open. So we have a lot of volunteers who donate their time and we'll bring meals. So having a home-cooked meal is really important to us. Absolutely. Yeah, and just so delicious. Right. Um so always a hot meal. Um, we have a nap room that's really important to us. Sound machine, diffuser, blackout curtains. And that is a ministry right there now. Absolutely. I know there are days where I'm like, hmm, not nav room.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

But man, what a meeted knee.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Absolutely. Just having a safe place to rest as a woman is so important. And so that room is very sacred to us. Um, we have a full clothing closet. It is set up kind of like a boutique. Yeah. We really want it to be a dignified experience. Come in and choose something that fits your body. Agency. Absolutely. That makes you feel good, makes you feel beautiful. Um, we have a little weather sign posted over our coffee station so they can kind of prepare, like, oh hey, it's gonna be rainy this weekend. Maybe I should get my clothing to match that.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

How thoughtful.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Um, and so we we really love the clothing closet. I feel like that's a space where walls really come down. Like as you're picking out different things. That's where girlhood, you know? Exactly. That's where a lot of stories come out. Yeah. Women are always doing fashion shows. We have we have our fashionistas who are always, when we're like hanging up clothes in the morning, we're like, oh, so-and-so is totally gonna get this. I love it. It's so much fun. That room is a blast, but it's also it's just a very sweet space. Right. Um, I feel like as you're going through the racks, you know, you don't have to look somebody in the eye. You can kind of start talking while you're doing something with your hands. And so a lot of walls come down, a lot of stories get shared in that space. Yeah. Um, and that opens the door for a lot of things. Um, and then we have a laundry room, so you can do a full load of laundry for free every time that you're there. We have showers with everything you need, first come, first serve. Um, and so those are kind of basic services downstairs that is open to absolutely anyone. Any woman can have access to those. There's no timeline. Um you can utilize those as long as you need. Um and then upstairs is kind of by appointment only. We have a little office up there where we can have private conversations, um, where we can do some case management, and then we have a little in-house clinic. Um healthcare has been a big focus of ours this year. Yeah. So all of our staff is trained in basic first aid. So we do tons and tons of first aid. Um, there are so many things that, you know, especially in the clothing closets, like women are changing, and it's like, hey, what is that? Yeah, like, oh, this is a spider bite that's infected, but it's fine. And we're like, let's go take care of it. Right, let's get that checked out. Yeah. Let's maybe put a band-aid on that. Right. So many things that some neosporn and a good cleaning can fix. And so we do a lot of first aid, and then we also have partners who come in throughout the month. Um, we have monthly HIV and hep C testing. We also have a partnership with the health department. And they come and do full women's wellness exams, cervical and breast cancer screening, STI testing, on-site birth control, um, the full gamut of women's services. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

So that is incredible. Yeah. Gosh, I love that so much. I want to come volunteer. We would love that. Yes. That'd be great. That'd be great. So I moved here almost four years ago. Okay. And I remember when I moved here, somebody mentioned that, oh, that's where there's a prostitution ring on this street. And it was really close to where we worked. And I was like, this isn't Knoxville. There's not a prostitution ring. Like, yeah, we're not a big city. And then I saw it of like, oh my gosh. I'd you think of like, oh, this is a sweet southern town. Absolutely. We love football here, we love to play outside. Oh my gosh, there's actual exploitation happening right here. Where and I'm seeing it with my own eyes. And so, what does exploitation look like for the women that you're serving at Magnolia?

SPEAKER_00 16:40

That's such a good question. I feel like, like you said, until you see it, you just don't really think that that's happening in your city. Had no clue. Yeah, I didn't either. And you know, once you see it, you can't unsee it. And even when I go back home to Houston, it's like, oh, now I'm starting to see things with a new light.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Um, but really, exploitation is anything where you're exerting exerting power over someone to get what you want. Um, so we are 18 and up, and I think our oldest woman is in our 80s. So we have like the full range of women coming in.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

And so situations look so different. Exploitation is such a wide range. We have everything from kind of what you traditionally think of like women who've been kidnapped, women who have been trafficked. Um, we have a lot of women, especially with the 40, who are brought in from different cities by truckers. We have a lot of girls from Detroit, from Florida. Um, a lot of women who will meet someone online who, you know, that's where exploitation starts. They're being blackmailed. Um we have women who it's their boyfriend who got them, you know, got their girlfriend hooked on pills or on drugs to get what they wanted. Or um, you know, the I feel like our community is very familial. Um, we work with a lot of family units. We have one family where we've worked with four generations. Oh wow we've worked with grandmother, mom, daughter, and her 18-month-old. Um, we have a lot of mother-daughters. Um, it it is very generational. And so I think exploitation, there's not a set pattern in Knoxville or really in general. Right. There's we're always so surprised, there's always new and creative ways that people are exploiting people to get what they want. And so it can look like so many things. I think a lot of our women are exploiting each other, honestly, just to survive.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yeah, it's that survival.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

I have to get to the next day. Wow. Wow. I mean, that's just absolutely heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. And I've heard our programs team talk about before of like somebody would say, Oh, yeah, I'll take you to get services, but you have to do something for me. Exactly. And that's typically where it starts. And that is uh blows my mind of like, what? And and it's happening in our town and in our town. And so I don't think we can sit on the sidelines and be like, well, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And it's not just our part of town. It's not just East Knoxville. It truly happens all over the state. We have women from every part of Knoxville.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah. And I think that's a very important thing for listeners everywhere to realize that it's not just what you might deem as that part of town. Exactly. Anywhere in any city, things like this could be happening. And so it's us to uh up to us to be those good neighbors and step in for those who can't absolutely and maybe just won't step up for themselves right now. And how do we come alongside people in the world?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

And that's what I love about your podcast is you're educating people. Right. I think that's the first step is learning what it looks like and starting to recognize those things.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

And like you said, using your voice to step in and be a good neighbor. Right. You said earlier of like once you see it, you can't unsee it. And so shining the light on these things of like, okay, now we know we're what are we gonna do about it right now?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

I think one thing too that I didn't know when I started is I'm a very like black and white thinker of like this is this category and this is this category. And I think probably a lot of our listeners would fall into that camp of like, okay, that person deals with addiction, that person deals with mental illness, that person deals with homelessness, this person has been a victim of trafficking. But they can really all blend together.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Such an intertwined web. And I think that's something that even I didn't realize until I really started working in this. I I think I was the same way. It's like, oh, you're dealing with one thing and then, but I feel like we I mean, most women are dealing with a handful of each of those at the same time. Yeah. And we often get women who they'll come into our center for the first time and they're being evicted. And it's too late to take for us to take action, unfortunately. And we've watched how quickly things snowball. It's when you're newly homeless, then all of a sudden it takes such a toll on your mental health. Yeah. And then you start using drugs to cope, and then you're trying to survive. And like you said, people are like, oh, well, you know, can I get a ride if you do this? Yeah, give me X, Y, and Z. And so it just that cycle starts so quickly and it's so hard to get out of.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

And they're all so intertwined.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yes, it's very braided, absolutely braided together. You mentioned earlier case management. What does case management? I know what it looks like on the CARM side, but what does it look like on the Magnolia side?

SPEAKER_00 21:38

So our case management is a little bit different than other agencies. Um, being that we're not grandfeded, it gives us a little bit more flexibility. We're very women led in case management. So we've broken it out into kind of three main phases um identification, stability, and sustainability. And really, it can look, I mean, it looks so different for every Single woman. And so typically we'll start with identification, the big three. Yeah. ID, birth certificate, social security card. Um, you really have to have all of those to do absolutely anything. And so we believe that's a right for absolutely every woman. So whether you're engaged in our case management or not, we try and get that for almost every woman because you need them to run a hotel, you need it for a job, you know, everything you need, the basics. And so that we try and do for every woman. And then typically when we start case management, we'll sit down and kind of talk about what their needs are. And like I said earlier, it you know, it's a woman's choice. She has to want to take those steps. And so that's kind of I'll sit down and we have two case managers, myself and Laurel, and we do everything up to getting a woman housed.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

And so we'll sit down and talk through kind of like what we could do or like give recommendations of like, hey, I know this, your situation. Maybe we focus on this. Um, so many of our women haven't touched the healthcare system in years. There's so much stigma with if I go to the hospital, if I go see a doctor, I'm gonna be treated like this. I'm, you know, if I am justice involved, I'm gonna get arrested because I have a warrant. And so healthcare is something, it's a huge gap in our community.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

And so that's one of the first places that we often start. There's so much undiagnosed, untreated mental health, so many chronic diseases. Um, we have a lot of women who have cancer and diabetes and things that they have never gotten treatment for. And so, really, we start with like getting them on insurance, going to a PCP and kind of figuring out what the game plan is so that they can start living healthier and we can start addressing some of those things. A lot of our women are justice involved, so we do a lot of court um talking with probation parole officers, if they have court fees, if they need to meet with their officer, kind of what that looks like and helping them navigate that. Court can be so scary. Yeah. And so just having somebody to go with you. We go to all appointments, we're at their transportation as well. And just having a friend who can advocate on your behalf and help you navigate those systems, help you.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

It's confusing.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Absolutely. Help you fill out paperwork and like ask the right questions. Right. I mean, when I'm at the doctor, I get overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Yeah, I'm like, Can you call my mom? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

I know, I know. Like when I was, you know, having a baby, I always brought my husband because I was like, I need a second set of ears to like, you know, and to help. Sometimes I feel like half the time they're saying things in it's not layman's terms. I'm like, Right. Can you help me translate this and what was actually said? Explain this to me, like I'm five. Exactly. Yeah. And help me plan next steps and things like that. So we do a lot of healthcare, a lot of court, food stamps. Um, if a woman is interested in recovery, um, our team, we go and meet with every single program that we send women to. We want to make sure that they're going to the right place. Yeah. Um, because we are so relational, that's something we realized early on is that we would send a woman to a program and they would get there and they're they would end up back at our door, and they were like, they didn't they didn't care about me. Oh. They viewed me as a client, they viewed me as a number.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Like, I just miss somebody who cares.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

And so now we're very intentional about where we send women. We won't send someone somewhere where we can't talk about the experience. Love that. Even at the health department, it's like, okay, I'm gonna send you to so-and-so at the health department. This is exactly what it's gonna look like. I'm gonna be right there with you. I know her personally, exactly. And just being able to kind of set expectation of what that looks like makes women more willing to do it. Absolutely. And it's it kind of eliminates that fear. And so that's something we really try and be intentional about, especially with recovery. Yes. If you're gonna go do a long-term program, you wanna know that it's a good fit for them. Yes, and we want to know that our friends are taken care of, right? And so making sure they're placed somewhere that's a perfect fit for them. Um, so that's something we really focus on. And then the sustainability piece is really starts with housing. Um, we're part of the coordinated entry system here in Knoxville, so we are one of the agencies that can do the champ assessment, um, which helps a woman get into permanent supportive housing. And so permanent supportive housing are separate apartment complexes, so you still have your own individual apartment with your own bathroom, but it has case management on site, security is tighter, yeah. Um, so it really is a great fit for a lot of the women that we're serving because it gives them more structure, they still have support on site. Um, and so that's something that we can we can do at the center and really get them kind of set up. And then once we get to housing, we have a case manager, Brenda. She's absolutely amazing, and she does everything post-housing. Wow. And so our case management doesn't have a timeline. We, I mean, like relationship. Yeah, as long as women are willing to have us in their lives, we're gonna walk alongside you. Yeah, and so Brenda really focuses on helping women pay bills, helping them create a schedule for cleaning their house. Yeah. Um, what does it look like to start grocery shopping and meal planning? You know, how do you get plugged into a church and start to build healthy community? Um, a lot of women want to get a part-time job or volunteer once they get housed. And so that's really what she focuses on and walks alongside women. Yeah. Um Brenda is a peer recovery specialist, and so she does a lot of, she'll meet with women to do 12 steps, take them to celebrate recovery. Um, she's one of the most intentional humans on the planet, and so everybody calls her Mama Brenda. Mama Brenda. Mama, she's the best. We all need her in her life. I'll need a Mama Brenda. But she is like the perfect person to walk women in that season and just like she loves so hard. And so she's like so great in getting women feeling comfortable where they're at. Yeah and feeling like they can take those steps and really find that sustainability and that stability in their lives. Absolutely. What a gift. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

What a gift that is. Yeah, I love that so much. I think there is maybe um, I don't know if it's if a stigma is the right word or if it's just a misunderstanding that some people think that nonprofits compete against each other and that it's us versus them. And so we've done an episode on like community partnerships, how we work with so many different organizations because it cannot just be us. It cannot just be y'all.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

There's no way we could, like, we are all on the same team. We want a better Knoxville for our neighbors, for everybody. And so, can you just explain a little bit maybe how the Magnolia Ministries works with CARM? Yes, and you mentioned the health department and like some of these other community partners too.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Truly, we could not do what we did without our community partners. Same. It, I mean, it's like the body. We all play a different part. Yeah. You know, we fill the gap for a need that we saw that wasn't there because CARM is filling this need, BMC is filling this need. You know, we yeah, we all fill different roles and we love working with CARM. We work with you guys very closely. Um, Morgan Hayes is one of my favorites. Girl, she's my best friend. I she's truly the best. I love her. Um, you know, whether it's bouncing resources, like, hey, I have this really hard situation. I am hitting roadblocks here. Do you have an idea? We bounce things off each other all the time. Or, you know, we have so many girls who are staying at CARM or are in y'all's programming, and then they come to us during the day. And so kind of tag teaming case management, or like, hey, we're gonna refer this this woman to you. She can't be around men, this is what our situation is, and so we can step in and help. Um and so truly partnerships are like we could not do what we did without um, you know, because we can only do so much. And so being able to refer to the health department, being able to, I mean, your guys' health floor has been huge. We have we have two women on your health floor right now, and we were kind of running into a wall with, you know, not being able to find services for them, and they ended up on your floor, and it has been amazing. And the care that they've received has been incredible. And so it, if we didn't have all of our partners in our community, we just wouldn't, I feel like we wouldn't be able to function. Exactly. It allows us to holistically, you know, work with everyone in the community because everyone fits somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:40

Right, exactly. And I think the more we work together, absolutely, better it all is. Like, why wouldn't we work together? Yes, it's making sense to me. Like, yes, if we're running in this line and we're really good at this, why would we try to do 87 different things when I can pick up? Yes, and say, Hey Sarah, girl, I got you know, like some back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

And that's what I love about this community. It's it's such a close community that we get calls all the time from different agencies, and it's like, hey, I think she's the better fit for y'all's program. We're gonna send her over. Here's the situation. And then it's like that warm handoff. And we have, you know, different outreach teams who will come and bring women to the center. And it just, I'm so grateful for the community that we have in Knoxville.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, I love that. What do you love the most about working in East Knoxville? Working in your job? What is your like favorite part?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

My favorite part. That is so hard. I always tell people I have the best job in the world because I basically get to hang out with my friends all day. Right. Um, so we have something we call it our Bloom Events. It stands for Building Lives On and Off Magnolia, but really they're field trips. Fine. And so once a month we take women to just get out of the community and go do something fun. Love it. We go to the pumpkin patch every year, we go bowling, we go to the zoo, or we'll have park days and just really intentional time to build community with the women. It's really sweet one to see them get out of the community. Yeah. And like we always hear, like, oh my gosh, this was like the best day. Wow, I felt like I could actually like breathe. And just watching like women who are kind of frenemies on the street, and then all of a sudden, yeah, you know, they're laughing and they're having fun and watching like this switch in their relationships is really, really sweet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Um, that can happen when you feel safe. Absolutely. Right?

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Those walls come down and you feel like you're not competing. Yeah. Because often on the street, it's every woman for herself. And, you know, our only real rule is like, you know, you just have to get along with everyone. Right. And it just is really sweet to watch those relationships shift and change. But being able to get out and just go do stuff as women, and it's so fun. Um we also have partnerships with two care farms. Um, and so we'll take women to go out to the farm to learn about caring for animals and horses. We do some equine therapy and just really getting women out. Yeah. And I feel like often when we're driving that time in the car, whether it's going to the bloom events or in case management, that like one-on-one time with women. Yeah. It just, it's so sweet. And I feel like it deepens your relationship and that trust. And I just really enjoy the intentional time that we get with women. I love that. So like these women are truly like family to us, and I love them so much.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

And I'm sure they feel the exact same way about you. They're they're my favorite people in the world. I love it. Gosh, I feel like I could talk to you all day. I love it, and love hearing about the work that you're doing and how you're serving our neighbors. And I mean, that is hard, holy, incredible work that y'all are doing. So I have two more questions for you. So one of them, this is like old school youth group thing that we do here. It's called the sticky note. So if somebody doesn't remember every wonderful thing that you said, which they should remember because it was all amazing, but in case they don't, and they just had a sticky note to walk away with, what would you want that sticky note to say?

SPEAKER_00 34:14

I think what I would really want people to remember, I think oftentimes people are people are really are nervous around the unhoused population. Yeah. And at the end of the day, their mothers and their sisters and they're just women. Right. And being kind to someone and asking someone how their day was, it goes so far. And just seeing someone as a human, I think has such a profound impact. And so I think just shifting the perspective of their mothers and their sisters, and they're they're just women who are trying to trying to survive just like all of us.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

And we all want to be treated exactly with dignity and care. And yeah. We're not that different. Exactly. We're not that different. Great sticky note. The last question that I have for you, this is called the Home Word Podcast. So, what does home mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 35:09

That's a great question. Um, I think to me, home is somewhere where you can let your guard down, where you can just be truly yourself, be fully seen and known. And I don't think home is always a place. I think sometimes it can be people. Yeah. And so I think our biggest prayer for the women's center is that we can create that for the women that we serve, that they can we always say, This is your space. Like this is your home. We want this to be your space. We want to be where you can breathe and just be yourself. And so I think that's what home is for me.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

I love it. I love it. Well, anything else you want to add for the episode? So I'm just really grateful to be here. Yes, so glad you said yes. So thank you guys for joining us today. Thank you to Sarah. Uh, to the listeners, remember you can check the show notes for any relevant links. You can find us at on socials at Knox Area Rescue Ministries, and you can find the Magnolia Ministries at the Magnolia Ministries. So be sure to follow along so you never miss an episode and you never miss out on the great work that's happening. I'll see y'all at home.