Birmingham’s SOLE Recovery Provides a Lifeline for Domestic Violence Survivors

By Je’Don Holloway-Talley | For The Birmingham Times As the nation marks National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Tina Thornton, founder and director of SOLE Recovery LLC (Survivors Overcoming Life Experiences), wants a focus on Black women who face disproportionate rates of intimate partner violence (IPV), according to national data. The mother of three knows what it’s like to be in a violent relationship. She tried numerous times to leave a 22-year marriage. “I couldn’t even use the phone in my home, my ex-husband had removed all of them… and my family was not a place where I felt like I could share what I was experiencing; they had no clue of anything I had encountered,” she said. That led Thornton to establish her group in 2003 which began as a small unofficial ministry, allowing a group of women to come together and share their stories in in a local hospital event room. SOLE’s faith-based, holistic approach to healing allows individuals to resolve their problems or find refuge, she has said. “There’s a lot of self-reflection to encourage them to step beyond what they’ve been told or what they believe.” According to national data, 45.1 percent of Black women will experience...