Our Mission
To provide a loving and safe place for children awaiting placement in our community’s foster care system.
The Why
The pain is real. The suffering experienced is like none other. It is simply devastating when one is torn apart from everything they know. The emotional and mental distress only continues to grow when a child’s only option is to sit in a cold and impersonal office of the Child Protective Services (CPS) worker. While left languishing in this trauma of separation, uncertainty, and fear, the children are often able to overhear telephone conversations of CPS workers struggling to arrange placement. The paranoia that inevitably comes with this experience screams to the child, “This is your fault!” It is at this most critical point in this process that the Grace & Joy House sees it’s calling – to minimize the trauma to these children and help the healing begin.
"You might be temporary in their lives. They might be temporary in yours. But there is nothing temporary about the love or the lesson."
— Tonia Christle
The How
When children are taken into protective custody, the CPS worker will be able to bring the child(ren) to the Grace & Joy House to await foster home placement. While there, the children can be cared for by our staff and volunteers who have been specifically trained to recognize and respond to the needs of children during this difficult time in their lives. Therefore, the Grace & Joy House will be more than just a place for children to wait until they are placed in a foster home. But instead, it will be a place where the children can receive clean clothes, eat a fresh hot meal, play games, and receive a warm smile and the attention they need as reassurance that they are loved and valuable. Structured to be a safe place where the child(ren)’s basic needs are the priority; the Grace & Joy House will be the first step in helping the child(ren) move past the pain of their abuse, neglect, and separation and toward their recovery.