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For Women with Nowhere Left to Turn: How This Columbia Organization Is Changing Lives across Middle Tennessee

Issue #725

May 11, 2026

In this What’s Up Columbia issue…

☀️ Columbia’s Tuesday Weather - Mostly sunny w/ high of 81, low of 58

✨ Local Spotlight Feature 👇

👉 For Women with Nowhere Left to Turn: How This Columbia Organization Is Changing Lives across Middle Tennessee

👮‍♂️ Tuesday, May 12: Police Memorial Service

🗓 List of Upcoming Events

🎵 This Week’s Live Music

🗓 Know of Some Local Events Not Listed? Send us the Details!

For Women with Nowhere Left to Turn: How This Columbia Organization Is Changing Lives across Middle Tennessee 

Rachel Peck was 23 years old, married for two years, living in 700 square feet on a farm between Duplex and Kedron, when a life changing event occurred. A woman they had never met walked into the corporate office Rachel worked at and said she was about to be homeless.

An email went out to the entire staff asking if anyone had a guest room, a mother-in-law suite, or a cheap apartment they could connect her with. Rachel read it and figured someone else would step up. She forwarded it to her husband, who worked elsewhere and had hundreds of employees with larger homes. Her part would be small. She would bless this woman from afar and move on.

That is not what happened.

Ten years later, 431 Ministries has served 181 unique women in a single year, drawn clients from 16 different counties, caught the attention of organizations and churches in multiple states and even as far as Australia, and is now operating out of a new space at 1511 Nashville Highway in Columbia. Last Sunday, May 10, marked eight years of official ministry.

The whole thing started because Rachel and her husband Justin said yes when they really could have said no.

 👉 431 Ministries is celebrating eight years with a ribbon cutting and open house this Tuesday at 1511 Nashville Highway in Columbia. Find details here.

A Stranger at the Door

The woman who walked into Rachel's office in 2016 had most of the building blocks of a stable life. Education, a job, a car, a place to live. She had been targeted specifically because of that stability.

The problem was that her situation did not fit neatly into any system designed to help her. There was no physical violence, so she was not eligible for a domestic violence shelter. The homeless shelters available to her would have required her to give up her full-time job, because there is no childcare inside a shelter.

Rachel and Justin heard all of this. They had a single bathroom in their 700 square foot farmhouse. They had a nine by nine guest room that barely fit a queen bed. They had a cat. The woman had a nine-year-old daughter. And, as it turned out, a cat of her own.

The two cats figured things out. So did everyone else.

The woman and her daughter lived with the Pecks for nine months. They celebrated birthdays together. They went through some hard stretches and figured them out. They are still in contact today. A couple of years ago, Rachel and Justin went to the daughter's high school graduation.

"We just did life together," Rachel said.

Side by Side

Two years after that first experience, a neighbor approached them. His granddaughter had been through more hardship than most people see in a lifetime. She had attempted her life. He had watched what happened when Rachel and Justin opened their home, and he asked if they could just help.

Rachel had left her corporate job by then and was farming full time. She did not have a counseling background or a psychology degree. She told him she could go sit with the granddaughter and start making calls, looking up resources, trying to figure out who could help.

She drove over and spent days calling organizations on behalf of this young woman, sitting at the grandmother's kitchen table, reaching place after place that could not help because of some demographic the granddaughter did or did not fit. At the end of it, the grandmother looked at Rachel and asked if she could do anything even though all other systems failed. All Rachel had was time and a listening ear, but sometimes that’s enough.

Rachel started showing up. She would sit on the edge of the bed and just talk until the granddaughter would get up and do something with her. They took pigs to the butcher. They milked goats. They went to farmers markets. Slowly, things shifted.

That experience is the reason the ministry's core program is called Side-by-Side. Not because Rachel had answers, but because she showed up.

"It's not that our advocates are professionals in mental health," she said. "We've just seen stuff, we've lived stuff, and we love well."

That experience planted the seed. On May 10th, 2018, Rachel and Justin made it official, signing the paperwork to become a nonprofit with a mission to tend to the overlooked and underserved women of Middle Tennessee.

2020 and Everything After

The year 2019 brought something they had been told would never happen. Rachel became pregnant, unexpected and against medical odds, and the pregnancy and recovery took most of the year. They had raised funds to purchase the building the grandfather offered them. The ministry had slowed.

On January 1st, 2020, Rachel prayed and told God she could walk away. They had a six-month-old. They were not getting referrals the way they had been. No one needs help, she remembered thinking.

In the first week of the new year, they got 14 calls. They had gotten two for the entire prior year.

During that stretch, Justin's health declined significantly. Rachel was full-time caregiver, raising a baby, running a farm, running the ministry, and managing everything that came with COVID. She went to her board and said simply: either this becomes a career, or they shut it down. The board moved, and Rachel shifted into a full time role. 

Through 2020 and 2021, the ministry grew into something resembling its current form. Families across the area opened guest rooms and mother-in-law suites. Women got connected, paired with advocates, and helped in every direction, from an 18-year-old abandoned at a hospital out of foster care to a widow trying to restart from scratch.

"I often lovingly call that season like the wild west of 431 because we were still figuring out what the program really was," Rachel said.

172 Women, One Valentine's Day

Somewhere in that stretch, Rachel read a statistic that stopped her cold. Around 72 percent of single moms had suicidal thoughts during the COVID isolation. She read it and started thinking about what would happen if they got those women all in one room.

She pitched the idea to her board. Maybe 150 women, she said. They were still serving seven to fourteen women a year at that point, so this was a significant stretch.

A volunteer mentioned Nicole C. Mullen, the gospel artist. Rachel had grown up listening to her music. She thought reaching out was a long shot and sent an email mostly as a prayer. "If you want this to happen," she told God, "let it be crazy."

Within an hour, she had a reply. A call from Nicole's manager followed. She was in. Tell her when and where.

431 held its first Known Seen Loved Celebration right before Valentine's Day 2021 at Destiny Church, just off the square in downtown Columbia. A host of volunteers helped make it happen. Tennessee Coffee and Smoothie opened up during the event and gave free coffees to everyone. More than $40,000 was donated in less than 40 days to pull it off. Every detail was considered, and one of the most touching was that every woman in the room received an individual bouquet of flowers to take home and remember that they were known, seen, and loved by someone. For many of them, it was the first Valentine's Day they had not spent alone.

172 women filled that church.

"There are women still to this day that we've served that will tell us years later, I was there," Rachel said. "That made a difference for my life."

What 431 Does Now

The ministry is structured in a way that still mirrors the heart of its humble beginnings. Women who reach out go through an intake call with a specialist who simply holds space for them, often for the first time, to say everything they have been carrying.

From there, they are offered an assessment that tracks 16 life skills, everything from finances and safety to communication and planning. Classes build on those skills in layers. There is an optional faith-based component. The Bible studies are the only thing that costs anything, a $12 fee for a nine-week class to ensure people who sign up actually show up. The book is provided, the childcare is provided, the space is provided, the food is provided.

Women are now invited to participate in the more in-depth Side-by-Side (SBS) Program after going through the Known, Seen, Loved stages with a dedicated Client Advocate to walk them through situations like divorce proceedings, career changes, widowhood challenges, early years of independence and more. Today, the SBS Program wraps a personal mentor, a financial mentor, a licensed counselor, and a staff advocate around one woman at a time for up to a year. 

Rachel graduated her last client two weeks ago. She is out of direct client work entirely now, focused on growth, fundraising, and getting 431's model into the hands of churches and nonprofits who want to implement it elsewhere. Organizations in Australia and several states have already reached out wanting to learn how it works.

One in four households in Maury County, Rachel said, is a single-woman-led household with no partner or spouse involvement. Across all 40 counties of Middle Tennessee, the number holds at one in four. Around 40 percent of those households have children under 18.

"We probably have more of a voice in the people around you than you realize," she said. 431 served 181 unique women in 2025. They have already served 90 in the first months of 2026.

Rachel said something toward the end of the interview that was hard to shake.

"You know her," she said. "It's your daycare teacher, it's your neighbor, it's your mom, it's your sister, it's your best friend."

There are women, she said, who know about 431 for months or even years before they reach out. Often it is someone in their life who makes the difference, a friend who says, "Please just go talk to them. I'll go with you."

If you have someone like that in your life, she hopes you will say exactly that.

For women who wonder if their situation is hard enough to qualify, Rachel's answer is direct: we all lose when we compare pain. You do not have to be on the street. You do not have to have hit rock bottom. The fact that someone else has had it worse does not mean you have to continue walking alone. There is room for you.

431 Ministries is located at 1511 Nashville Highway, Suite B, Columbia, in the same parking lot as Super Buys (now Mac's Discount) and just down the sidewalk from The Stubborn Mule. Classes are free. Childcare is free. If you want to volunteer, a full-time volunteer coordinator is ready to match your gifting to a need. If you want to give, the website is the place to start. Call 931-431-8363 or find them online at 431ministries.org.

431 Ministries is celebrating its eighth anniversary with an open house and ribbon cutting this Tuesday. The whole day is open, with staff available to give tours and answer questions about what the ministry does. The ribbon cutting with Maury Alliance is at 10 a.m. At 1 p.m., a panel of volunteers will share their experiences with 431 and how being part of it has changed them. At 3:30 p.m., Rachel and Justin will be available for informal coffee chats to talk about the heart behind the ministry, where it is going, and all the behind-the-scenes stories that do not make it into articles.

If this work moves you, Tuesday is a great chance to walk through the door and see it for yourself.

Watch the full interview with Rachel here.

Tuesday, May 12: Police Memorial Service

From Columbia Police Department’s post…

NATIONAL POLICE WEEK MAY 10-16. We would love for you to join us, Tuesday, May 12th, at 7:00 p.m. at Pleasant Heights Baptist Church for our Police Memorial. 

Each May, our nation comes together to honor the courage, sacrifice and dedication of law enforcement officers. Originally established by presidential proclamation President John F. Kennedy in 1962, National Police Week includes Peace Officers Memorial Day on May 15th and a week of observances recognizing officers who given their lives in the line of duty, as well as those who continue to serve and protect our communities with dedication and courage.  

National Police week is both a time of solemn remembrance and a celebration of the men and women who serve with integrity and bravery every day.  It reminds us that behind every badge is a story of service, sacrifice and family.

Memorial Service Details:

Tuesday, May 12, 2026
7:00 PM
Pleasant Heights Baptist Church
2712 Trotwood Avenue, Columbia, TN 38401

Click for more info

Upcoming Local Events

🗓 Have an event to add? Send us the Details!

Tuesday, May 12th 

Wednesday, May 13th

Thursday, May 14th

Friday, May 15th

Saturday, May 16th

Sunday, May 17th

👇 Click the Links to Learn About our Local Business Sponsors! 👇

🎵 This Week’s Live Music

Tuesday, May 12
Songwriters Round - Whiskey Alley Saloon, 7:30 PM

Thursday, May 14
Todd Ciprian - Tito’s, 6–9 PM
Austin Byrd - Whiskey Alley Saloon, 7:30–9 PM

Friday, May 15
Joey Sykes - The Spot Burgers & Beers, 5–8 PM
TBA - River Terrace, 6–8 PM
The Bird & The Bear - Buck & Board, 6–8 PM
Blue Velvet Jazz - American Barrel, 6–9 PM
Don McKinnon - Grinder’s Switch, 7–9 PM
Tom Saffell & Robert Johnson - McCreary’s Irish Pub & Eatery, 7–9 PM
Kenny & Bob Acoustic Duo - Puckett’s, 7:30–9 PM
Troy Castellano - Whiskey Alley Saloon, 7:30–9 PM
Glitz and Glory - Boondox, 8:00 PM
Black Hole Sons - Fozzy’s Bar & Grill, 8–11 PM

Saturday, May 16
Grasskickers - Amber Falls Winery & Cellars, 3–7 PM
JanaRose & The DeadEnds - The Rebel Bar & Grill, 4 PM
TBA - River Terrace, 6–8 PM
Stevierock Acoustic Duo - McCreary’s Irish Pub & Eatery, 7–9 PM
Chris Fox - Twisted Copper, 7–8:30 PM
Curated Writers Round - The Bourbon Gospel, 7:30 PM
Melanie Dyer - Puckett’s, 7:30–9 PM
Down South Band - Fozzy’s Bar & Grill, 8–11 PM
Chris Loggins - Twisted Copper, 8:30–10 PM

Sunday, May 17
The Cliftones - Amber Falls Winery & Cellars, 1–5 PM
Todd Ciprian - Fozzy’s Bar & Grill, 2–5 PM
Maury County Community Band & Merchants of Cool - Ridley 4-H Center, 2 PM

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