Lighthouse Youth Services was founded In
1969 by a small group of African American women from the Baptist Women’s Fellowship who along with other community volunteers sought a better future for young people and their families.  Having become aware of the
high number of young people from Cincinnati who had been incarcerated in state juvenile correction institutions and who were returning
to the same difficulties that had led them into trouble in the first place, these volunteers set out to open the first group home for girls in the state of Ohio.  From the beginning Lighthouse has pioneered the development of programs and services, some of which have become national models of innovation and efficacy.

Milestones in this history include:

• In 1974 the Youth Crisis Center, formerly Lighthouse Runaway Shelter, was Cincinnati’s first – and only – shelter for runaway youth.
• The Youth Development Center opened in 1978; originally a group home for boys and girls, YDC now provides long term care for boys.
• In 1979 the agency opened the Therapeutic Foster Care Program which now provides care for nearly 100 children every day.
• The Independent Living Program began preparing 16 and 17 year old teens for self sufficiency in 1980.
• In 1986 the agency opened Ohio’s only private corrections facility for youth at Paint Creek; now a national model for successful youth reform.
• The first Beacon of Light Award was presented to the Honorable Robert Black, Jr., Dr. Myrtis Powell, and Hope Taft in 1996.
• In 2002 the Lighthouse Beacon for Youth Foundation was established.

Along the way there have been huge successes, such as Paint Creek and the Independent Living Program, and there have been amusing experiments, such as the Freedom Factory, which produced employment for youth and wooden pallets - or the Care Management Program, part of Hamilton County’s attempt to privatize social services.  Both long lasting and more transitory programs have led to a wealth of experience and service that inform a vibrant and healthy organization; innovative, always searching for better answers to the community’s needs and leading the way to the successful fulfillment of its mission.

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