O’Connell Children’s Shelter has a licensed capacity to serve almost 60 children in residential care in five facilities located throughout Douglas County. While we support the idea that children should be raised in a family setting when safe to do so, we also understand the unique challenges some youth present and are well versed in caring for youth with severe behavior challenges, or extreme mental health needs.

Our programming is focused on providing: love, structure, supervision and support and our staff are experts in this field. Many having worked in residential care for decades.

Two of the facilities are within the city limits of Lawrence (Williams House and Winter House) and three are in a rural setting (The Ranch). Four of the five houses serve males while the Williams House serves multi genders.