ovides services including case management for trafficking and abuse victims, community outreach, and training.
Certified as a “Qualified Residential Treatment Program,” Gracehaven uses a treatment model specially designed to care for girls who have experienced trauma. It provides some of the only homes in Ohio reserved for girls who have been victimized by sex trafficking or abuse.
While most girls live in Gracehaven homes for six to eight months, the ministry often continues caring for them well after they move out of the residential homes. Gracehaven believes true healing comes from the renewed hope and joy that these girls can find in a loving relationship with Jesus Christ, and it relies on its employees and volunteers to help cultivate that relationship.
As Gracehaven explains in its Leadership Standards, “every employee, volunteer, [and] board member, plays an essential and irreplicable role in the accomplishment of [Gracehaven’s] Christian mission.” It stands to reason, then, that each employee must personally believe and follow the core tenets of the Christian faith.
Montgomery County’s religious discrimination
For seven years, Gracehaven contracted with the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services in Montgomery County, Ohio, to place girls in its group homes and to receive funding for foster care services. But when Gracehaven went to renew its contract in 2024, it discovered an employment non-discrimination provision that prohibited the ministry from employing only those who share its Christian beliefs.
Gracehaven signed the agreement but sent a letter to the county explaining that it has a right to screen staff based on religious beliefs and that it does not “unlawfully discriminate” by exercising this right. The ministry explained that it planned to continue hiring only employees who agreed with its Christian mission.
Instead of recognizing Gracehaven’s constitutional rights, the county refused to renew its contract with Gracehaven, prohibiting the ministry from serving the children in Montgomery County and from receiving public funds.
Religious discrimination rears its head
The most obvious problem with Montgomery County’s discrimination against Gracehaven is that it violates the First Amendment. Montgomery County is infringing on Gracehaven’s religious freedom by preventing the ministry from receiving county public funds and participating in its foster care system. Gracehaven should not have to fight legal battles to simply hire religious people to run a religious nonprofit.
But this discrimination from county officials has additional consequences. Gracehaven is committed to providing vital care for youth sex trafficking survivors in Montgomery County who desperately need a safe and loving home, but county officials are in effect denying girls this care by refusing to renew Gracehaven’s contract.
Understanding the need for this care, some lower-level county employees have still tried to refer girls to Gracehaven for group home placements. But without a contract with the county, Gracehaven has no way to accept those placements and care for those girls.
In December 2024, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County for its unlawful discrimination against Gracehaven. County officials should never take away safe homes from youth sex trafficking victims simply because the officials dislike a ministry’s religiously based hiring. That hurts everyone.
