For three decades, Day Spring has offered men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities more than a place to stay. It’s offered them a home.
The campus comprises four buildings on 13 lush acres donated by the Archdiocese of Louisville. Tucked behind Audubon Hospital off the busy Poplar Level Road, the campus is close enough to Newburg Road to hear the bells of St. Agnes Church.
Day Spring’s goal is to provide residents with a “really good homelife because that radiates out into the community,” said Amy Barnes, the nonprofit’s chief program officer. “We want them going to church and being in the community doing the things you and I do, but that starts at home.”
Day Spring, 3430 Day Spring Court, isn’t a Catholic entity, but Barnes said its work wouldn’t be possible without the Catholic community.
In the spring of 1994, ground was broken for the facility founded by Jack and Gladys Ford, who wanted a place for their disabled children to thrive.
“We could not have started without the support of the archdiocese and Catholic families,” Barnes said in a recent interview
The Sisters of Mercy were also critical to its success, Barnes said.
For its first 19 years, the Sisters of Mercy had a constant presence at Day Spring, living in the homes with residents.
Sister of Mercy Deborah Kern was its first executive director and served there until 2012.
“She’s still involved and still has friendships here. We’re so grateful,” said Barnes.
Day Spring, which is marking its 30th anniversary this year, serves 63 adults and young adults.
Three decades ago, it started with two cottage-style housing units — one for men and one for women who require support 24 hours a day.
In 2017, a college dorm-style building was erected on the campus to house young adults in its “College of Living” program. The program teaches life skills to help its residents live independently after a few years.
Day Spring also has a campus on Baxter Avenue — an apartment building — and it offers a program where men and women receive care in the homes of individuals.
The care the residents receive is “very person-centered,” Barnes said. “We strive for a mentality that’s ‘doing with’ instead of ‘doing for.’ They are actively participating in their lives. It’s a household.”
Most of them have gained part-time jobs off campus and have active social lives, Barnes noted.
On a sunny mid-July morning, Kim Ernst — a Day Spring resident for 30 years — was ready for work neatly dressed in a navy and white polka dot blouse and black slacks. She busses tables and greets customers at a diner in Middletown.
“I enjoy my friends and being with them,” she said of her life at Day Spring. On campus, she helps her peers, seven other women, care for the comfortable home they share. In her spare time, she enjoys playing guitar, she said.
Jacob Cantrell — a 24-year-old in the “College of Living” program — has lived on campus for three years. He’s learned culinary and technical skills there.
“I’ve gotten more knowledgeable in computers and technology. That’s my core strength,” he said. Cantrell works as a dietary aide at the Little Sisters of the Poor’s St. Joseph Home for the Aged, which is next door to the Day Spring campus.
“It’s taught me a lot,” he said. In the future, Cantrell said he sees himself “in an apartment, possibly shared, depending on my income.”
