[Magdalene St. Louis press release] Magdalene St. Louis has been named a recipient of a $25,000 “Wildcard Grant” from the Grants Program of Trinity Wall Street. 

Magdalene St. Louis helps women who have survived lives of prostitution, trafficking, abuse, addiction and life on the streets by providing a community where they can recover and rebuild their lives. The program offers two years of housing, support and education at no cost. Based on the highly successful Magdalene/Thistle Farms program in Nashville, Magdalene St. Louis is scheduled to open its first house later this year.

This is the first year Trinity is offering Wildcard Grants, which are designed to be “resources for innovative leaders.”  According to the grant description, “these grants seek to reward beyond-the-bell-curve work that inspires positive transformation of people and, by extension, societies. The one-time award will be offered to organizations whose leaders have a ‘wow’ idea that lacks only money to help get it off the ground.”

In making the grant award, the Rev. James H. Cooper, rector of Trinity Wall Street said the grant is “to support general start-up costs of the program, such as buying or leasing the residential house.

“We are delighted to be able to support this program,” Cooper said, “and we look forward to hearing of its progress.

“In the midst of acquiring our first residential home and planning its rehab, this generous grant could not have come at a better time”, said Magdalene St. Louis Executive Director Tricia Roland-Hamilton. “Our circle of support now includes Trinity Wall Street.”

Magdalene St. Louis Board President the Very Rev. Mike Kinman will be at Trinity Wall Street this Sunday evening as a guest panelist on human trafficking following a performance of Angel’s Bone, a musical drama “about two fallen angels whose nostalgia for earthly delights finds them far from heaven—and victims of human trafficking.”

“Trinity is an inspiring example of a church consistently using its resources to support transformative ministries,” Kinman said. “We are honored they have entrusted us with this grant and share our belief that in addition to this being about the women who will be in our first community, this is about changing a culture where women are bought and sold.”