Economic Impact in the Social Sector of Southern Indiana

Profile:  Home of the Innocents

Home of the Innocents

1100 E. Market St.

Louisville, KY 40206-1838

1218 E. Oak St.

New Albany, IN 47150

Business Phone: 502-596-1042

www.homeoftheinnocents.org

Contact Person:

Gordon S. Brown

President & CEO

gbrown@homeoftheinnocents.org

Agency Mission Statement or Description:

Home of the Innocents has been our region’s open arms to kids in crisis since 1880. The Home provides loving, therapeutic care to children who are victims of abuse, abandonment and neglect, as well as loving and skilled care to medically fragile children and children with autism. The agency serves nearly 300 children a day and around 2,000 children and at-risk families annually. Southern Indiana children are served in several of the Home’s programs, with 136 clients from Clark, Floyd, and Harrison Counties served in the past three years.

Economic Impact:

The completion of its current 5-building expansion in 2010 will mean that, since 2003, Home of the Innocents has placed $59 million dollars in capital improvements at the east end of Market Street in downtown Louisville, at the site of the former Bourbon Stock Yards. Downtown business associations have publicly praised the Home as a catalyst for redevelopment along the eastern corridor of Louisville's central business district. They credit the Home with enabling the economic resurgence of the area with its initial investment of $26 million in the new children’s village and for the aesthetic improvement in the East Market Street district. Real estate professionals operating in the area have said that property values have risen since the Home relocated to the site and that the trend is ongoing.

Home of the Innocents has an annual operating budget of over $21 million. The agency employs a staff of 440, 61 of whom are Southern Indiana residents (14%). The Home provides a significant economic impact to the metropolitan community through employees’ occupational taxes; over $214,000 currently and increasing by another $75,000 in 2010. The current $33 million expansion project also employs approximately 150 construction workers with a total estimated payroll of over $12 million. This expansion of the children's village will ultimately create approximately 225 new, well-paying jobs, dramatically increasing the economic impact Home of the Innocents has in the region.