About Us
The History
The legacy of supporting children began in 1877, when the General Protestant Children’s Home was founded. The location at 12685 Olive Boulevard was built to serve abused and neglected children placed in residential homes by the Missouri foster care system. The redesign of the foster care system led to limited numbers of children in residential care. After an extensive community needs assessment, General Protestant Children’s Home dba YouthBridge Community Foundation decided that the best use of the facility was a program that would serve families who travel to St. Louis to receive medical care for their children.
The strategic plan included the start-up of this new venture as its own non-profit corporation. On January 20th, 2005, HavenHouse St. Louis became a separate 501(c)(3), buoyed by startup financial support, decreasing over 3 years, and a lease from General Protestant Children’s Home dba YouthBridge Community Foundation. To complete its road to independence, a branding initiative led by some of the country’s top marketing experts completed the process to re-name the agency and create a tagline to best articulate the program, mission and vision. The results were announced in early 2006: HavenHouse St. Louis—lodging, care and support services for out-of-town families with a child in a St. Louis hospital.
In January 2008, because we had capacity and the need was so great, we expanded to serving adult patients traveling for medical care. After 5 long years running the program from within hotels, in January 2025, we opened doors to our first guests at 3450 Park Avenue – where we now call home.
The Impact
Patients and their families from more than 25 miles from St. Louis may stay at HavenHouse for as long as their loved one is being treated in area hospitals. Critical healthcare needs of the patients we serve typically include neonatal intensive care, burn injuries, orthopedic surgeries, plastic surgeries, cancer treatments, and transplants. Though the average length of stay is 2.5 days, transplant patients and neonatal intensive care patients sometimes need a place to stay for months, or need repeated, extended visits to the hospitals.
Our referral partners include surrounding medical facilities at which patients are traveling to receive medical care and treatment. The hospitals we serve include: Barnes-Jewish, Cardinal Glennon, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Siteman Cancer Center, St. Luke’s, Missouri Baptist, Ranken Jordan, Shriner's Childrens, Mercy, St. Louis University, and St. Mary’s.
Since opening in 2005, we have served more than 122,000 individuals from more than 45,000 families, spanning all 50 states and 80 foreign countries. During FY 2025, we served 2,014 patients, families and caregivers.
Our actual cost at Park Avenue is $273 per night for each guest room. Thus, we rely upon the generosity of donors and volunteers for much of our operating income.
2025 & 2026 Legacy Space Sponsors
2025 & 2026 Legacy Space Sponsors
Fundraising Events
