Why I Love ESTN

To celebrate the month of love we asked staff, survivors, volunteers, and donors why they love End Slavery Tennessee. These are the responses we received: 

♥ I personally love ESTN because it represents hope and it just feels good to be able to provide that hope and love to these survivors. Tina McLane, Spring Hill Group Leader

♥ I love End Slavery Tennessee because it's showing us how love truly can change everything. Lives saved, hearts changed, families reunited and more. Who wouldn't want to be part of an organization that made all of this happen! Beth Wright, Board Member

♥ I love the laughter! So often when I am at ESTN I hear laughter down the hall or bubbling up from someone's office. What a courageous thing to find laughter in the hard places. How amazing that the staff at ESTN can (and do!) keep on laughing and finding JOY even as they fight something as huge and heavy at human-trafficking. What hope there is in the laughing joyful ladies at ESTN!! Emily Mahoney, Co-Founder BRANDED Collective

♥ I love End Slavery Tennessee because it helps me feel like I am a part of something bigger than myself. I love that I am able to help fight human trafficking in a tangible way that positively impacts the well-being of my community! ESTN is full to the brim with amazing people with hearts of gold whom we can work with hand-in-hand to make the world a better place, one survivor at a time! Sarah Cho, volunteer

♥ I think as Christians we are asked by Christ our Lord, to look for ways to improve our Earthly world, to bring divided people together, to advocate for the forgotten and oppressed, to care for the sick, and to give to those in need. Once I learned of the problem of Human Trafficking in Tennessee I felt compelled to be part of the team at ESTN working towards a solution.... "As you did it to the least of these you did it to me." (Matthew 25:40) Dana Montgomery, Murfreesboro Group Leader

♥  I love ESTN because I am surrounded by amazing, strong and brave women! The survivors, my co-workers, our CEO and Board Chair... all incredible and inspiring.  Lorraine McGuire, Director of Development

♥ The girls are incredible and we get to build great relationships. Getting to walk alongside survivors as they make so many life changes and progress towards their recovery and healing is a rewarding process. We get to laugh together, go to the park, grab donuts, make memories and rebuild childhoods. Kelsey Whitlow, Survivor Care Coordinator

♥ I love working at End Slavery Tennessee because I have a job where I get to work alongside some amazing survivors who are so strong and resilient. I feel incredibly blessed and honored to have this position. These ladies have taught me so much about never giving up, no matter what life gives you. Love does truly changes everything! Kayla Davenport, Survivor Care Coordinator

♥ ESTN surrounds me with a love and a hope that overwhelms me. The most important thing to me about ESTN is that when you look at me, you don’t see what I’ve done or what’s been done to me. You see me - beautiful, complicated, free. And you give me hope for a future that I never dared to believe I could have. Survivor

♥  I love working at ESTN because I have the privilege of watching Survivors come in to our office one person and leave another.  Jennifer Tabb, Director of Case Management

♥ Working with the survivors through BRANDED Collective has been the most transformative experience of my life. The women we employ are amazing, intelligent, hardworking and dedicated to improving themselves. They slip and fall short as we all do, but they pick themselves back up. We are honored to be a small part of their lives and have been inspired by so many women who we’ve seen overcome extreme obstacles. The staff and volunteers at End Slavery Tennessee (ESTN) work tirelessly to help these women pick up the pieces and move forward, step by painstaking step. ESTN is so full of awesome stories of love and transformation - I’m just lucky to be a fly on the wall! Lauren Carpenter, Co-Founder BRANDED Collective

♥ Our End Slavery Tennessee family IS family. Derri, the staff, and the survivors are all a part of this amazing family. And all of us are surrounded by support each and every day. To have a survivor, whose trust has been violated, come into your office and hug you and tell you that they love you, well, that is worth everything. I truly can’t imagine being anyplace else. Jill Rutter, Director of Community Outreach

♥ I’ve never known love like you give me. Love has always had motivation to get something from me. (But) You just love me. Survivor

♥ I love working at End Slavery Tennessee because every day is a day when I can change a life forever - and sometimes save a life. That reality keeps me going. And in the process, my own life is transformed, as I rub shoulders with the amazing people who are staff, survivors, volunteers, donors - a caring community of support. Derri Smith, Founder & CEO 

♥ ESTN breathed life into me again. I just love you so very much. You gave me time to heal with no pressure. You provided love and so much more - everything I needed and haven’t had inyears.Thank you for giving me a chance to love myself again. Survivor

♥ I love End Slavery Tennessee because it is the gold standard for human trafficking survivor aftercare. Tammy Meade, Assistant District Attorney, Nashville

♥ I appreciate that people who are looked down on by segments of our society, often the segments they should look to for help, are viewed differently by ESTN. ESTN is willing to invest the time and money to provide a way to a better life for people in need. I appreciate that ESTN is willing to accept the help I can offer to further its mission & the knowledge I've gained while interacting with all the people of ESTN. Don Adcox, Volunteer

♥ I got involved with End Slavery TN because I saw the organization for the people within in it. It's a true testament that love really does change everything. And seeing the lives changed from the love & determination of these women and men made me want to be apart of it. I get the joy of educating and bringing my friends on board. They banded together to make a huge t-shirt order! Cara Deese, Franklin Group Leader