Grace City Church Loses Chelan County Juvenile Chaplaincy Contract
County officials decided to create their own program because they weren't "seeing an active interest" from GCC volunteers
Chelan County terminated its contract with Grace City Church to provide chaplaincy services to the Chelan County Juvenile Justice Center in 2023, according to county spokesperson Jill FitzSimmons.
Exactly when in 2023 GCC lost the contract FitzSimmons didn’t say. But she did provide the reason: a lack of interest from GCC volunteers.
So administrators started their own program and now chaplains from a variety of denominations share the duties of ministering to this at-risk subsection of our community.
“While the contract was signed by juvenile in 2021, it did little to spark an interest from volunteers. So juvenile administrators terminated the contract and preceded with plans to create their own program,” she wrote in an email. “Chaplains from various religious denominations now rotate Chapel facilitation duties and are available at the request of a youth.”