Sunrise Children's Services is a licensed behavioral health organization with locations in Danville, Dixon, Elizabethtown, Mayfield, Morehead, Bronston, and Mount Washington.
[3][4] As of 2018, Sunrise holds the highest levels of accreditation from The Joint Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and other professional organizations.
[5][4] Sunrise's purpose was to house and care for children orphaned as a result of the American Civil War and its aftermath.
[3] The original facility moved to a 20-acre (0.081 km2) campus in Middletown, Kentucky, and was named Spring Meadows Children's Home.
[6] In the early 1900s, the Baptist Educational Society of Kentucky purchased the former Lynnland Military Institute (which closed in 1879) in Hardin County and opened the Glen Dale Children's Home on the property in 1915.
[9] In 2013, Sunrise's then-CEO Bill Smithwick proposed to the board of directors to lift the ban on hiring homosexual employees.
[12] In September 2018, home improvement retail chain Lowe's announced that it would donate $28,000 in materials and offer the volunteering time of about 50 local store employees to help rebuild the activity center and refurbish other properties on the campus, including the Gibson Cottage, which had remained uninhabited since the 1990s.
[13] In 2018, Clark County resident Judy Huls Singleton agreed to donate her 130-acre (0.53 km2) farm to Sunrise, which planned to open the Solid Rock Children's Ranch on the property.
[17] One aspect of the lawsuit that Judge Charles Simpson allowed to proceed claimed that Sunrise was using taxpayer funds to coerce children in its care into participating in religious practices.
[2] In 2015, near the end of his term, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear reached an agreement with the ACLU and Americans United to settle the case.
[2] In 2014, the city of Danville, where Sunrise maintains its Woodlawn Campus, passed an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.