Time to introduce myself, my story, and why we're here.
Oasis Farms Inc was started by a single mom with a singular vision; a place where moms in a state with overwhelming odds stacked against them could root, grow, and thrive after surviving the indescribable. Domestic violence statistics in Kentucky show that 45% of women in our state have experienced domestic abuse. We are in the top percentile in the US with these statistics, number 1 in the nation. This is a crisis. There are 493 addiction recovery services immediately taking clients in Kentucky, there are 15 domestic violence shelters, and not all of them can shelter mothers and children. In 2019 in one single day, 128 requests for services went unmet due to lack of resources. These statistics are largely unknown, disturbing, and staggering. With this problem affecting nearly half the population and their children there have to start being solutions offered, this is mine.
Through lived experience, I saw first-hand how many steps and barriers there are between an impossible choice and safety. It took extensive searching and door-knocking to find the resources my 3 children and I needed to establish a new foundation. So, in 2021 I decided to find a way to put the solution to all of those needs in one place. It was through this research I also discovered the unsettling food insecurity in Eastern Kentucky, and I saw a clear opportunity for mutual benefit between two underserved communities. Growing nutrient dense food, making programs to understand the body's fuel, keeping costs and education accessible to everyone - all the while providing homes, jobs, and sanctuary to moms to create safer futures for our children. I want that for every community.
I recognized quickly that I needed to be adequately prepared to start a business and needed guidance through the unforeseen complexities of a start-up this ambitious. So, I partnered with Shaping Our Appalachian Region and Mountain Association in 2022 to begin actioning the dream into reality, and by June 2023 Oasis Farms Inc became an established entity. The moments in the middle, and the folks who filled them, defined everything.
It's a story of women standing in the gap, choosing blind faith, trusting their gut, and filling a need. In 2021 found myself, for no reason other than necessity, in Prestonsburg, Kentucky after my divorce in without a single connection in the town. Just as I found us a home, my oldest daughter was hospitalized for months. In this time I started trying to sell my art, again, out of no reason other than necessity. I sold some of the things I made in a studio on my block and the owner reached out to let me know The Mountain Grrl Experience wanted me to be a vendor. Unknowing I was about to step into the Experience of my life, I signed up to vend, hoping to make some money for my family, and walking away with an entirely new one. The women of MGE embraced and supported me, a stranger, in a way that fueled my future, so I just kept coming back, returning as a performing artist the next year, and in and even more exciting role this year. In Livingston, Kentucky I'd heard of a similar festival called Holler Girl. I made it a priority to go, and likewise, it reshaped the form of my future.
These women I found stood in my corner for 2 years while I dreamed and schemed and saw my vision come to life and the minute I was ready, so were they. The Mountain Grrl Experience and Holler Girl Music Festival have both committed to making Oasis Farms their charitable organization for the year, contributing to our Phase One plans that will help build the first housing for mothers on our property. These partnerships are paving the way towards a long-awaited opening day, and I'll never be able to express my gratitude.
And that brings us to today! And how you can help! You can find tickets to both festivals below, headlining with some remarkably talented women you won't want to miss, and I'll be performing my own set at both festivals as well!
MARK YOUR CALANDERS
The Mountain Grrl Experience | June 20-22 | Pikeville, KY
Hollergirl Music Festival 2024 | August 1-3 | Livingston, KY
VOLUNTEER
Volunteering with these two festivals is where everything started for me, we'd love to have you join the family.
DONATE
You can financially support our mission here,
I encourage you to check out the haven that inspired this vision and support them as well.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, please contact one of Kentucky’s 15 programs supporting all survivors of domestic violence.
Also available 24/7 are the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656- HOPE (4673) or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). https://www.zerov.org/
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