About
The Joy House is a Christian teen residential program and counseling ministry in Jasper, Georgia. Its teen program serves boys and girls ages 12 to 17 with mild to moderate emotional or behavioral problems, and its model combines home life, education, counseling, and family involvement (The Joy House, placement criteria).
The ministry traces its origins to Steve and Wendy Lowe and Rick and Mary Bell, who worked with teenagers through a church in north Georgia in the 1990s. Its first board met in December 2000, and the first teen and family entered a leased facility in Pickens County in July 2001. The organization later purchased land in Jasper, opened boys' and girls' homes on the campus, and added a counseling center in 2012 (Our Story).
The program describes its residential structure as built around houseparents, an on-site school accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission, and individual and family counseling. Families are expected to participate in counseling and parent-support programming, and students return home on weekends, holidays, or school breaks as their placement allows (The Joy House).