Indiana United Methodist Children’s Home Is Growing
Serving children and their families in crisis has been the mission of the Indiana United Methodist Children’s Home since 1915. In 1924, the Children’s Home relocated from Greencastle, Indiana, where it was founded, and moved to our 24-acre campus in Lebanon, Indiana, where we have helped save the lives of nearly 6,000 children for more than 110 years. We are taking stock of all the things we’ve done right and areas we can improve. We’ve long given hope to children emerging from unimaginable trauma, abuse and neglect.
As we begin A New Century of Hope, we have a clarion call to action to do more.
We are expanding our residential treatment capacity by 28% and adding new services. Our expansion includes constructing a seventh family style home to open in early 2026 for ten teens. The new home will include special “recovery” services to support their transition to substance-free life after completion of addiction treatment elsewhere. We have also launched our Independence Project, a transitional housing pilot program for five 18-and-older young adults who have aged out of our current program and feel they need extra help to get on their feet.
The Children’s Home is a sophisticated residential treatment program for teenagers and young adults. The impact of our mission is helping children in crisis find happiness and lead independent lives. Over the years, our graduates have become productive members of society…raising families…coaching youth leagues, serving in our military and running companies. Teaching a child to resolve anger helps make the world a less violent place to live. Modeling parenting skills improves the entire family and the next generation. Inspiring a student with previous academic challenges to earn a diploma unlocks the potential of a future nurse, mechanic, logistics engineer or community leader. We know that a single failure will cost Indiana communities hundreds of thousands of dollars — and that child’s future.
That’s our mission—helping children in crisis find hope for the future.
And that’s why your support is so important to us.
The Home’s budget is derived from per diem fees by placing agencies (Indiana Department of Child Services, Indiana Department of Correction), benevolent funds provided by churches, and philanthropic gifts from corporations, community organizations and generous donors. Expenses to accomplish our 24/7 trauma informed care include education costs for our on-grounds accredited school, postsecondary and vocational education, therapeutic counseling, medical needs, spiritual life programming, our acclaimed Teaching-Family Model of care and our newly established Independence Project.
The actual cost of care and treatment is greater than public dollar support, so the Home’s Foundation supplements the annual shortfall. We are working diligently to fund changing needs of our teens and do so with great optimism. We are grateful that many have already stepped up with catalyst funding for our new programming.
We know the need is great, and we know we are well-placed to address it. We believe that God will bless every effort to help our needs. When our teens succeed, Indiana wins.