History and Locations
Mercy Ministries was founded in 1983 by Nancy Alcorn.
Nancy Alcorn had previously worked for eight years at the Tennessee Department of Corrections, a correctional facility for juvenile delinquent girls, as an athletic director, then moved on to supervise foster-care placements, working with the Emergency Child Protective Services unit investigating cases of abuse and neglect. She then moved on to a Director of Women role at the Nashville Teen Challenge program for two years.
In 1983, Nancy Alcorn opened the first Mercy Ministries home in West Monroe (which until 1987 was better known as "Covenant Ministries"). In 1996, a second Mercy Ministries home was opened in Nashville followed by new corporate headquarters in 2001.
In 2001, Mercy Ministries went international, opening two facilities Australia followed by further homes in the United Kingdom in 2006, New Zealand in 2007 and Canada in 2010.
In 2009, Mercy Ministries announced the closure of the Australian homes following controversy and widely publicized abuse scandals. The Sunshine Coast facility closed in June 2008 followed by the Sydney home in October 2009.
In 2005 and 2009 respectively, Mercy Ministries also opened homes in St Louis, Missouri and Sacramento Bee, California.
To date, Mercy Ministries has disclosed anticipated homes to be opened in Washington DC, North Carolina, Los Angeles, Florida, Vietnam, Peru and South Africa.
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“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)