Mission and History

 Our Mission

Jessica’s House provides free grief support in a safe place for children, teens, young adults and their families grieving a death because no one should grieve alone.

Our History

The bright vision for Jessica’s House grew out of the darkness of grieving families who personally experienced the need for grief support in their community.

The foresight came from Erin Nelson, then the mother of two young children, whose husband died suddenly. Around the same time, Jessica Everett was diagnosed with leukemia at six years old. When Jessica died, her parents, Michael and Danielle, were looking for grief support for their young son. The Nelsons’ and the Everetts’ lives were intertwined with Nancy Daley, a shared friend who also served as Jessica’s tutor while she was undergoing leukemia treatments.

Jessica’s House was born from the friendship bound together by untimely deaths.

In 2011, Erin and her friends’ efforts to bring grief support to their community caught the attention of Emanuel Medical Center, then owned by the Covenant Ministries of Benevolence (CMB). In 2012, with Erin at the helm, Emanuel Medical Center launched its newest ministry, Jessica’s House. The ministry was modeled after the Dougy Center, the first center in the United States to provide peer support groups for children grieving a death.

Covenant Ministries of Benevolence sold Emanuel Medical Center in 2014 and retained the grief support ministry of Jessica’s House under the parent organization of EMC Health, Inc. formed under Covenant Ministries of Benevolence to manage funds following Emanuel Medical Center’s sale.

In 2018, Jessica’s House was serving over 600 individuals in groups and experienced a waiting list. They formed a building committee with key leaders, staff, and volunteers. After a successful capital campaign raising $6.8 million dollars, Jessica’s House built a permanent home in Turlock on the property of Cornerstone Covenant Church, which graciously offered to lease a portion of their land and opened in October 2021. Jessica’s House became its own nonprofit in 2024 and offers eight specialized grief support groups and a school group program at surrounding schools.