Mercy Multiplied is an international, Christian and charitable organization that offers a six-month residential program for young women aged between 13 and 32 who struggle with various "life controlling" issues such as eating disorders, depression, self-harm, abuse issues, and drug and alcohol addictions. The ministry operates as A Girl Called Hope in New Zealand. Mercy Multiplied has a pro-life stance in its faith-based approach, and as such, extends its program to offer women with unplanned pregnancies with alternatives to abortion. In 2010, Mercy extended their program to work with victims of sex trafficking.
History
Mercy Multiplied was founded in 1983 by Nancy Alcorn. Nancy Alcorn had previously worked for eight years as an athletic director at the Tennessee Department of Corrections, a correctional facility for juvenile delinquent girls, 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. Alcorn opened the first Mercy Ministries home in West Monroe In 1983. A second home was opened in Nashville in 1996 followed by new corporate headquarters in 2001. Mercy Multiplied went international in 2001, opening two facilities Australia followed by further homes in the United Kingdom in 2006, New Zealand in 2007 and Canada in 2010. Following controversy and widely publicized abuse scandals, they announced the closure of the Australian homes. The Sunshine Coast facility closed in June 2008 followed by the Sydney home in October 2009. Mercy Ministries New Zealand registered the domain name for A Girl Called Hope on September 21, 2010, completing the transition to this new name on January 28, 2011. Mercy Multiplied also opened homes in St. Louis, Missouri and Sacramento, California in 2005 and 2009 respectively. To date, Mercy Multiplied has disclosed an anticipated home to be opened in Florida
Ethos
While the Mercy Multiplied website states they are a non-denominational Christian organization, Mercy Multiplied are also considered to be evangelical, charismatic and fundamentalist, both as an organization and in their approach to treatment. The Mercy Multiplied website states that the founder, Nancy Alcorn, established the following three financial principles for the program:
Give at least ten percent of all donations to other organizations and ministries; and
To not accept any state or federal funding as it interferes with the freedom to share Christ.
Funding
According to the three guiding principles that founder Nancy Alcorn established, the Mercy Multiplied website states that they do not accept government funding, and as such, are supported solely by donations from individuals, organizations and other ministries. With regard to fund raising events, Mercy Multiplied host gala dinners, Christmas donation drives and running marathons throughout the year, and invite visitors to their website to donate by becoming a financial partner or "sponsoring" a girl. In spite of Mercy Multiplied principles of not accepting government funding and providing their program free of charge to their clients, Mercy Ministries Australia was investigated by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and found to be in breach of the Trade Practices Act 1997 and guilty of "false and misleading advertising" of their services, including advertising that their program was free of charge when their clients were in fact required to sign over their government welfare benefits. The former directors were required to issue a written apology as well as undertake to partially compensate the former residents from whom they took monies.
Program structure and content
Individual counseling curriculum
Mercy Multiplied state that their counseling curriculum "combines biblical principles of healing and unconditional love with best-practice clinical interventions". This curriculum was said to have "replaced" "Restoring the Foundations" in 2009 by one media source, and in another, was said to have been "renamed" Choices That Bring Change. This change occurred in June 2008, following revelations that "Restoring the Foundations" involved the practice of exorcism/demonic deliverance. However, as of October 27, 2012, the Mercy Ministries of America website states that "Mercy Ministries does not perform or endorse exorcisms as part of its treatment curriculum". Modules of Restoring the Foundations, used by Mercy Multiplied until June 2008, included "salvation", "forgiveness", "godly/ungodly beliefs", "generational curses", "soul/spirit hurts" and "demonic oppression".
Controversy
Since early 2008, Mercy Multiplied have attracted considerable media attention in Australia, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom, drawing criticism of their employment of unqualified staff, overall medical negligence, and the use of demonic deliverance in their approach to treatment. The company's rebranding efforts from Mercy Ministries to Mercy Multiplied, but also including the new brand A Girl Called Hope in New Zealand, were criticized as attempts to silence critics.
