LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Home of the Innocents started in 1880 to help improve the lives of children and families.  

They provide long-term care for medically complex or terminally-ill children, but they’re looking to expand. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Home of the Innocents is looking to add 50 more beds to their services

  • They are looking to add a building and expand care to more adults 

  • The nonprofit is launching a campaign to help with the expansion

The expansion will allow more opportunities for adults to thrive, officials said. 

Mary Anne Lewis loves wrestling. But when she’s not watching WWE or flipping through coupons, she is hanging out with her fellow housemates at Day Spring—a residential facility for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

“All people have dignity, deserve respect and deserve to make their own choices in their own life,” said Lauren Hays, the CEO of Day Spring. 

Facilities like this are important for adults to have independence and to have a good quality of life. 

“They give unconditional love,” Lewis said. 

This is one reason the Home of the Innocents wants to expand their services. 

The nonprofit has not selected a location for the new facility and can’t give a specific amount of money they plan to raise, but they say it is a significant amount. They expect to raise the funds in three to four years.

Currently, the facility can hold 74 pediatric residents. 

But, after they age out of pediatrics, which cuts off at 21, there aren’t many opportunities for the patients to receive similar care outside the program. 

“We want to be able to build a place where they can continue to stay with us and create that opportunity for more children that we serve to be in our facility as well,” said April Raddish, the Senior VP of Home of the Innocents.  

Raddish says it’s important that adults also have access to the right sized equipment like monitors, ventilators and feeding tubes. 

“They need that additional equipment that is geared toward the young adult and adult populations. So that’s one of the reasons we want to build a different facility,” Raddish said.

Day Spring is one facility that provides a space for young adults with intellectual disabilities to transition from teenagers to young adults. 

“Something that gets them away from their parents and makes their own individual life choices, which again, everyone deserves to make,” Hays said. 

The nonprofit is also seeking support from the state and the community for their campaign. 

Day Spring is hosting a pickleball tournament with the Spread the Word Inclusion Campaign on Saturday, July 15.

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