A retired Clark County teacher is working to open a ranch built to solve one of foster care's most painful problems: siblings being split apart. Judy Singleton, who taught in Clark County schools for 35 years before retiring in 2011, is converting part of her family's 130-acre farm on Stoner-Ephesus Road into two homes designed to let brothers and sisters in foster care stay under one roof.
Singleton first proposed what would become Solid Rock Children's Ranch back in 2016, and the project has now been a decade in the making, according to LEX 18 News. She has said she witnessed children being removed from their families and separated from their siblings, an experience that shaped her decision to do something about it. Construction on the two homes is scheduled for completion in the next few weeks, per the same report, though the ranch still needs additional funding to finish the work.
A Farm Built Around One Family's Promise
The land itself carries personal weight. The property is Singleton's family farm and homeplace, and she has said she donated 130 acres of it in part to fulfill a promise made to her late father to use the family land to help children, according to the Kentucky Baptist Convention. The design reflects both sentiment and practicality: 15 of the 130 acres are set aside for two five-bedroom foster homes, six acres are reserved for Singleton's own residence and support facilities, and roughly 100 acres are farmed under contract, generating recurring income meant to help sustain the ranch's operations long-term, the Convention reports.
Sunrise Children's Services, the nonprofit developing the ranch alongside Singleton, held an official groundbreaking at the Stoner-Ephesus Road site in June 2024, with volunteer crews from groups such as Mississippi Nailbenders, Inc. helping raise the home structures, according to the Winchester Sun. Sunrise traces its own roots back to 1869, when it was founded as the Louisville Baptist Orphans Home, and it remains affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention as one of the state's oldest and largest child welfare organizations, per KET.
Why Keeping Siblings Together Is So Hard
The need for a place like Solid Rock is rooted in a statewide shortage. As of November 2025, Kentucky had roughly 8,700 children needing foster care but fewer than 4,600 approved licensed foster homes statewide, according to a report from WLKY. That shortage makes it difficult to place large sibling groups together, since most foster homes simply don't have enough beds.
Keeping siblings together is an important consideration in out-of-home care. The problem isn't unique to Kentucky, either — sibling groups can be separated across the country, in part because of a shortage of homes with enough beds for larger sibling groups.
Kentucky lawmakers have also moved to ease other placement barriers. In 2024, the state enacted Senate Bill 151, which expanded financial and administrative resources for relative and fictive kin caregivers while giving children a say in placement decisions once they're removed from their homes, according to Kentucky Youth Advocates.
Community Support Fuels the Final Stretch
Local fundraising has helped carry the project this far. Recurring events like the “Ride to the Ranch,” organized by the Baptist Bikers of Kentucky, and the “Run for the Ranch 5K” in Winchester have drawn church groups and motorcycle clubs willing to donate proceeds toward construction, according to Sunrise Children's Services. Sunrise currently provides therapeutic residential, psychiatric residential treatment, and foster care services across Kentucky, serving roughly 1,000 children and family members each year.
For Singleton, the mission goes beyond bricks and acreage. She has said God placed it on her heart to do more for children than just be their teacher, and she wants the kids who eventually live at the ranch to experience peace and time outdoors with wildlife on the farm where she grew up. Above all, according to LEX 18 News, she expects children at Solid Rock Children's Ranch to know they have worth and purpose.
