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075 Mary Katherine Rand—The Mary Parrish Center From Surviving to Thriving—The Mary Parrish Center When women and their children arrive at the Mary Parrish Center, they are survivors. Pummeled repeatedly by domestic violence and sexual abuse, wounded emotionally and physically, they have nevertheless found a place of shelter and hope. They have escaped. The beater has been beaten. But now what? How do these women and their children move from merely surviving to truly thriving? They do so with the help of the Mary Parrish Center and its many volunteers. Located in a 12-unit apartment building in Nashville, the Center provides rent-free housing for six women with children and for four women alone. One unit is the office and the other is the community gathering space. Being a "cluster site" gives the women the wrap-around services and supportive community that help them stabilize and begin to thrive. Although those services include up to two years of housing rent free, the average stay is only one year, a testim