Norton, Goodwill break ground on West Louisville Hospital and Opportunity Campus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Goodwill Industries of Kentucky and Norton Healthcare broke ground Tuesday on a project that could change lives for years to come.

The $100 million Norton Health Care Goodwill Opportunity Campus will provide an array of services, but what it really comes down to is opportunity.

”The word opportunity means conditions are ripe for success,” Goodwill Industries of Kentucky CEO Amy Luttrell said. “There are a lot of people that have never in their lives had had conditions that were never favorable for their success.”

The campus will provide opportunities like job training, legal support, youth mentoring, restorative justice services, child care and more.

The project includes Norton West Louisville Hospital, the first hospital west of 9th Street in over a hundred years.

CEO Russ Cox talked about when the project was merely an idea a few years ago during a staff meeting break.

”As I walked out of the exit of the men’s room, there were two ladies standing there who said, ‘we need to talk to you,’”Cox said.

The two women were Corenza Townsend and Kirstie Matzek.

They proposed some monthly and quarterly services in the West End but ended the proposal with a hospital.

Five years later, Townsend said it’s unbelievable.

“It’s amazing and a blessing,” she said. “Even if we were to do something like that, you wouldn’t think it would happen so quickly. That was in 2017. It takes a long time to put something like this together, especially when it hasn’t happened in 150 years.”

The Opportunity Campus expects to help 50,000 people every year.

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