Calvary Academy

We are a residential program with a school. The idea for Calvary Academy was conceived by three families sitting around a kitchen table on Easter evening in 1993. The concept was one they’d discussed previously: it would be a boarding facility with a preventive program in that the referrals would be made by parents and guardians with the help of relatives, teachers and pastors rather than through the public court system. Students would be surrounded by the Lord’s love and word with a staff of caring Christians as their role models. The educational program would have a goal of helping each student “make up” lost credits and gain academic success. A “level system” would take each student from a very structured program to a much less restrictive program during the 12 to 15 months of their attendance in order for each to return to his/her family and be ready to live in a God-pleasing way in the home, school and community.

Three more families helped to form a Steering Committee. A newsletter was sent to other families, Lutheran schools and Wisconsin Synod Churches. Prayer support, financial support and letters of encouragement kept them going for the next four years, and Calvary Academy opened in 1997 in a former Lutheran grade school in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2007 Calvary moved to a 40 acre campus located south of Mulberry, Florida, and continues to offer year ‘round attendance for its residents.

Since 1997 more than 300 young men and women from thirty-one states have benefited from Calvary’s program.