Franciscan Peacemakers
The Franciscan Peacemakers Social Enterprise was launched in January 2013 as a supportive workplace where women in recovery from sexual exploitation and substance abuse are employed while learning skills in manufacturing, packaging, marketing, sales, and administration. While acquiring the skills they need to earn a living wage, the employees who live at Clare Community (our rent-free, two-year housing community for women in recovery) save a percentage of their earnings to begin a strong financial foundation upon their graduation from Clare Community.
Franciscan Peacemakers products include soaps, lotions, candles, bath bombs, and salt scrubs - beautifully handmade with all-natural ingredients by women working together toward individual and collective healing. All items are available online at www.franciscanpeacemakers.org, at select retailers, and at Franciscan Peacemakers booths at craft fairs and farmers markets.
Our mission:
- Franciscan Peacemakers provides a pathway to healing for women who have been sexually exploited. We offer housing, employment, and a healing network of support to women while advocating for an end to human sex trafficking.
- Connect: Franciscan Peacemakers visit highly prostituted streets in Milwaukee bringing bag lunches, hygiene products, warm clothes and an empathetic presence to women on the street. The Hospitality Center at Franciscan Peacemakers also provides respite and peer support for women.
- Employ: Survivors are provided living wage jobs in our Social Enterprise which manufactures and sells all natural bath and body products. Employees living in Clare Community save half of their income so upon completion of the program, they have money saved up for moving into independent housing.
- House: Clare Community is a two-year program that provides free housing for women who are recovering from sexual exploitation (human trafficking and/or prostitution) and substance addiction. Residents gain two years of employment experience as well as opportunities to engage in healing various aspects of their lives: trauma care, physical, emotional and mental health, legal, relational healing.
- Advocate: Franciscan Peacemakers staff and board provide education to parishes, schools, and community groups to raise awareness about human trafficking and prostitution. Our team is also a part of the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force at the County level and interfaces with several Anti-Trafficking Advocacy groups in Southeastern Wisconsin.