Community celebrates groundbreaking of Opportunity Campus in west Louisville
Crowds gathered Tuesday to break ground on the Goodwill Industries of Kentucky and Norton Healthcare partnership designed to bring an opportunity campus and a hospital to the Parkland Neighborhood.
This will be the first hospital to be built west of Ninth Street in more than 100 years.
“We know that West Louisville has been disappointed too often and we don’t want this to take five years and you’re wondering if it’s ever going to happen,” says Amy Luttrell, CEO of Goodwill. “It’s going to happen.”
The organizations invested more than $100 million into a 20-acre lot on 28th and Broadway, to be the future home to Goodwill’s headquarters, the new hospital, and local service agencies.
These local agencies include, but are not limited to, Big Brothers Big Sisters, KentuckianaWorks, Volunteers of America, the YMCA, University of Louisville College of Dentistry, the Kentucky College of Barbering, and several more.
Kentucky College of Barbering student, Tyasia Brown, is one of many who are proud to be a part of the new facilities.
“It has a whole lot of resources for people in this community who may not be able to make that drive to get a haircut or get their teeth looked at,” Brown said.
Bringing in local services will help benefit the community — especially barbershops, that Brown says helps further students’ skill-sets while having a reputation for being a safe haven in communities.
“You get to talk to them about their problems and they get to leave with a fresh haircut and a smile on their face,” Brown said. “You leave school and be like, ‘I might have impacted their life today.’”
The new $70 million Norton West Louisville Hospital will also have an impact on lives.
“People cannot afford health care,” said Jacquay White, a Goodwill employee.
White says the importance of this hospital in the Parkland neighborhood gives people “somewhere to go.”
The plan of these organizations is to change the paradigm around care and access with these facilities. Their partnership is expected to bring hundreds of jobs and millions of funds to the area.
CEO of Norton Healthcare, Russell Cox, says that this is the next step in health equity.
“Together we turn the page on health equity, right here at 28th Broadway,” Cox said. “This is the real opportunity on how we should measure success.”
The effort to improve inclusion in health care also comes with an effort to improve inclusion in job opportunities. The project is planned to hire minority contractors, with a Black-owned architect firm executing the vision.
“We’ve come together to celebrate something that I think will break down barriers,” said Devon Holt from Goodwill. “But it’s not a building that will do that, it is individuals that will make that happen.”
West Louisville residents will have the opportunity to learn more about the project during a Community Forum, to be held July 26 at the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center, located at 3029 W Muhammed Ali Blvd., at 6 p.m.