RICHMOND, Ky. - Hope’s Wings Domestic Violence Program has served nearly 1,000 women, children and men in Madison County with emergency shelter, since 2009.

Thanks to a new $200,000 grant, Hope's Wings is growing it’s services by adding onto it's current facility, more shelter space, plus creating a training and education center for domestic violence survivors.

“This something that Madison County has needed for so long and fortunately the need for our services outgrew the size of building that we had. So being able to add onto that building and offer some more room is overwhelming for us and exciting,” explains Jennifer Lainhart, Executive Director of Hope’s Wings Domestic Violence Program.

Hope’s Wings current building has 16 beds available for victims of intimate partner violence and sits on about five acres of farm land in the city of Richmond, which is Madison County’s largest city. 

Lainhart shares that while their program has been successful at helping domestic violence victims survive and thrive after going through their program, she’s now excited for the opportunity to help lead the agency spread their wings through this expansion process.

“What we saw here in Madison County is the need for family services larger than the need for individual services, but should that change, we have enough space where we can alter that now, we can offer more individuals...the timing just has to be right. You know, things have to be in place for something like that to work. We’re a debt free program and we want to stay a debt free program, so we weren’t willing to borrow the money,” adds Lainhart.

Lainhart says Hope’s Wings started a fundraising campaign in April of this year.

It raised 30 thousand dollars and it’s just one of the many ways that the organization has been able to generate money and support from the community and surrounding areas.

"Community support for Hope’s Wings is huge and I will tell you that we are probably in the best community in the state of Kentucky because there’s not been one time that we’ve done without or been without electricity or toilet paper or whatever. Our community, if we put a call out, they answer, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” says Lainhart.

Phase 1 of the construction process will start in about 2-3 weeks.

Hope's Wings also plans to build a separate four-plex apartment building in the coming year.

It will offer transitional housing services to survivors of domestic violence.