Mission and History

 Our Mission

Jessica’s House provides 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 littles, whose husband died suddenly. Around the same time, sweet Jessica Everett was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of six. When Jessica died, her parents, Michael and Danielle Everett, were also looking for grief support for their young son. The Nelsons’ and the Everetts’ lives were intertwined with Nancy Daley, a friend in common who also served as Jessica’s tutor while she was undergoing leukemia treatments.

Jessica’s House was born out of the friendships of these friends, who were bound together by untimely deaths.

In 2011, Erin and her friends’ efforts to bring grief support to the 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 loss.

While CMB sold the hospital after Jessica’s House inception in 2014, it retained the grief support ministry, under the leadership of EMC Health, Inc. which was formed under CMB to manage the funds following the sale of Emanuel Medical Center to Tenet. EMC Health, Inc. is the parent organization of Jessica’s House.

After a successful capital campaign raising $6.8 million dollars, Jessica’s House built a new permanent home in Turlock and opened for groups in October of 2021. Jessica’s House currently supports more than 850 individuals from our surrounding zip codes. Jessica’s House currently offers eight specialized peer support groups as well as a school group program at various school sites in Stanislaus and Merced counties.