Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler opens Janie's House refuge for abused girls
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has opened a refuge for sexually and physically abused girls in Atlanta.
Named Janie’s House after the hard-hitting 1989 Aerosmith song ‘Janie’s Got A Gun’ – which deals with themes of child abuse – the home will be a haven for 'broken and battered' girls who have been the victims of maltreatment.
Speaking about the facility to TMZ at the open on Wednesday (6th December), Steven said: “When girls come in and they’re broken and battered and have their problems and get out, they have somewhere to go.
“It’s a safe haven, and more than anything, it gives them a voice. That’s what we want in the end, for them to be able to figure out what’s going on and be good from the inside out and pass it on.”
Steven also shared a video of the opening on Twitter, which you can watch here:
> STEVEN'S IN THE MIX AND JANIE'S IN THE HOUSE!!! IVE NEVER WRITTEN A SONG AS BEAUTIFUL AS JANIE'S HOUSE...THIS WAS TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING!! SPENDING THE DAY WITH THESE GIRLS...IM JUST SO PROUD OF THEM! I'M JUST RELIEVED THEY HAVE A SAFE SPACE TO BE WHO THEY ARE #JANIESGOTAFUND pic.twitter.com/CLHjjMISWG > > — Steven Tyler (@IamStevenT) December 8, 2017
In the clip he says: “There’s a lot of stuff you just can’t see with your plain eyes, you just can’t fix. (To fix it has) gotta be something that’s gotta be an inside job – and that takes stopping and that takes therapists to see the real problems, to get to it from the inside out.
“To get somebody good from the inside out is really an astounding thing – that way they’re good for the rest of their life then on their own. For this place to be here and to be called Janie’s house is just a dream come true.”
Steven started created the Janie’s Fund in 2015 in partnership with non-profit charity Youth Villages, to bring hope and healing for many of America's most vulnerable girls who have suffered the trauma of abuse and neglect.
Despite his phenomenal and continued success with Aerosmith, the Janie’s Fund website says Steven “considers Janie's Fund to be his life's true mission.”