YES Home held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning in Aurora, Indiana, marking the start of a $1.5 million expansion the organization calls the largest growth project in its 45-year history. The work is expected to double the nonprofit's ability to care for youth in crisis, giving more boys and girls access to a bed at the residential facility on County Farm Road.
The expansion was announced in September, according to Eagle Country 99.3, and it is funded through a matching grant program backed by United Way Greater Cincinnati Southeast Indiana and Cari Beth's Blessings. That funding covers the renovation itself, but it does not stretch to cover outfitting the home with the 10 additional bed frames, mattresses, bedding, dressers and other household items the expanded space will need, meaning YES Home will still need to raise money separately for those furnishings.
A Two-Decade Dream Finally Breaking Ground
For YES Home director Amy Phillips, Monday's ceremony represented something staff had hoped for long before construction equipment ever touched the property. Phillips said the organization had planned and dreamed about the expansion for over 20 years, the station's report notes, and emphasized that the additional capacity matters because beds simply are not available for some youth who need them right now.
The expansion will add bedrooms, a second independent-living apartment where residents can practice self-reliant living skills, and upgrades to multiple areas of the residence, according to a separate announcement from Eagle Country 99.3. Phillips told the outlet the expansion will help local youth stay connected to their schools and communities while they receive trauma-based care, life skills instruction and, as she put it, hope.
Timeline Slips, But Summer 2027 Remains the Goal
The project was originally scheduled for completion in early 2027, but per the same account, it is running slightly behind schedule. Phillips said the hope is still to have renovations complete by the summer of 2027.
YES Home provides round-the-clock residential services for boys and girls ages 12 to 20, according to Ripley News, with referrals accepted from the Indiana Department of Child Services and Juvenile Probation offices, per yeshome.org. The facility sits at 11636 County Farm Road in Aurora, also according to yeshome.org.
Staffing Pressures Loom Over Indiana's Youth-Care System
The expansion arrives as residential youth-care providers across Indiana have wrestled with capacity strain tied to staffing. Indiana facilities have been forced to drastically cut the number of beds and services they offer because of staffing shortages, according to IPM News, even as the state's Department of Child Services has cut the number of children in residential facilities in half since 2017. IPM News reports that managers at residential facilities say they are still forced to turn people away because of staff shortages, despite the overall drop in children served. Indiana's DCS-licensed Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities are described by the state as part of the full continuum of care needed to assist with the varied needs of Indiana's youth and families, according to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.
This is not YES Home's first push to upgrade its facility. The organization received a $100,000 Impact 100 grant in September 2023 for a renovation project intended to create a safe, therapeutic space for counseling and family visits, Ripley News reported at the time. With the new $1.5 million expansion now underway, YES Home is betting that more physical space will translate directly into more youth getting the help they need closer to home.
