Hermant at the Friendly Atheist has a post up:
The Truth About Mercy Ministries of America
and at Ex-gay watch
In Brief: Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Ministries Struggles to Keep …
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Sean,
I may be reading this wrong:
http://www.mercyministries.co.uk/smartweb/programme/faq
but apparently the Mercy Ministries in the U.K. is not adverse to taking government money in the form of DSS (department of social service) benefits. Like I said, I could be reading it wrong. Hope I am. But . . .
It wouldn’t suprise me. I think Nancy’s response when she “found out it was happening in Australia was to deny knowledge.
I find it beyond belief that a women payed 178 grand a year does not know the policies of her own organisation.
Nancy definitely 100% has known about it in Australia for years. Because when I was at Mercy she was talking about it and said it was OK because taking Centrelink money doesn’t stop them preaching or something.
Sorta blows these claims by Mercy Ministries staff out of the water, doesn’t it?
““Each girl spends about six months in our program, which costs up to $30,000 per girl. And, as the homes receive no government funding, the money is raised from business sponsors and the community.”
I’m sorry but they were charging me to be in their “free program” by taking my Centrelink money, and there is NO WAY it was costing them ANYWHERE near that amount!! We didn’t even have water a lot of the time and trust me we werent dining on caviar!!!
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2007/dec/14/turns-tough-lives-worthwhile-journeys/
“I find it beyond belief that a women payed 178 grand a year does not know the policies of her own organisation.”
Oh but remember poor Peter Irvine didn’t know what was going on when he was running the joint either. I feel so sorry for him, the staff really must have hidden everything so well. The RTF folders, the exorcisms, the statistics, the locks on the doors, everything.
John- it is not unusual for places such as this to accept DSS in payment- many detaox facilities do also- and generally use the housing benefits of the residents to pay for thier treatment – of course tho- as a professional working with kids like this I would prefer they receive such help and facilities without the Damocles sword of religion hanging over them
PD,
That’s the same here. A lot of programs will take centrelink payments, the difference between Mercy and them of course is that Mercy stressed that there Service was free and accept government money only when there appears to be no oversight attached to it.
Yeah whenever fundraising or in the media they always stressed the program is free for the girls, and they get no government funding (so please, please give give give, these girls need us and we need your financial assistance)..
Gloria Jeans was in on it too. Irvine was the Executive Director of Mercy at the same time as being co-owner etc of Gloria Jeans. Gloria Jeans had Cappucino For A Cause days where they would tell the public to come buy a cauppucino from them, because 50c would go to this ‘wonderful’ charity Mercy Ministries, who don’t charge the girls or get any govt funding. They also had Mercy Ministries brochures at Gloria Jeans that they encouraged the public to take. These brochures were nothing but false advertising, claiming girls were treated by psychologists and social workers at Mercy Ministries, and claiming the program was totally free, and proudly supported by Gloria Jeans so please donate.
It was just a massive scam all round, and the people who were being scammed were the public and Gloria Jeans customers.
Hi ex mercy girl,
When I was at Mercy in 2005 we constantly had problems with hot water too- sometimes this went on for days at a time and we were forced to have cold showers. Then there were all times that we actually had no water at all. Also we had major problems with the sewage system and had to use porta-loos for a couple of months.
The Queensland home in my opinion should never have had as many girls in it as there was due to all of these problems.
Some of the condtions we had to put up with were appalling and thats without even going into how the staff treated some of us!
Sarah,
its a pity that the mainstream media never dug into the maintenanec problems occuring at the Queenslad facility:
no hot water
backed up sewerage
If it happened in state facility it would be front page news.
You were lucky to have had cold water! Lots of times we couldn’t shower or anything because there was no water.