LEXINGTON, Ky. — Bill Beaven doesn’t seek the spotlight, yet his influence runs through communities across Kentucky and much of the Southeast. A Union County native, he’s spent his life expanding access to education and care through a blend of social work, business and philanthropy.
Growing up in Uniontown, Beaven recalls a childhood defined by simplicity and grit. “We swam in the rivers, fished in the creeks, swung from the trees and came home when it got dark,” he said. A three-sport athlete and captain of his high school teams, Beaven graduated in 1965 and, like most of his peers, enlisted in the U.S. military soon after.
When he returned home three years later, Beaven went to work for the Job Corps while enrolling at Murray State University, where he earned his undergraduate degree. While working full time in halfway houses and research programs, he learned that Kentucky state hospitals were offering tuition support for employees pursuing graduate degrees in social work. That opportunity—and his growing interest in better serving individuals facing addiction, disability, and mental illness—led him to the University of Kentucky College of Social Work (CoSW), where he earned his master’s degree. Those experiences provided a foundation that would guide the rest of his career.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Beaven became a leader in deinstitutionalization, helping states move away from large facilities and into community-based homes. Through companies he founded, Normal Life and Community Homes of Louisiana, he opened thousands of beds across multiple states. His philosophy was straightforward: Smaller homes create better outcomes.
“The focus was to get people out of institutions and into smaller communities,” Beaven said. “And the results really speak for themselves. I spent a lot of time helping institutionalized people get into something more like a ‘family’ unit, into something more like a home. It was very rewarding.”
That conviction later shaped programs for children in Lexington, Georgetown and surrounding areas through an organization called Key Assets Kentucky. The program created small, scattered-site homes for young people who are wards of the state and who may be coping with behavioral health challenges or autism. Instead of being placed in large, isolated facilities, these children live in homes of just three residents, supported by a wraparound team of youth care workers, social workers and counselors dedicated to helping them stabilize and build bright futures.
Key Assets operated for more than two decades as a private company before transitioning to a nonprofit in 2023. Today, the organization remains a critical resource in Kentucky’s child welfare landscape, offering an alternative to institutional care and a pathway to belonging for some of the state’s most vulnerable youth.
Another extension of this philosophy is Meadowthorpe Senior Living in Lexington, which Beaven designed around a cottage model, so seniors could receive more personal, intentional care. By applying the same small-scale approach to aging populations, Beaven hoped dignity in care would transcend age or circumstance.
Technology also became central to his approach. As computers entered the workplace, Beaven taught himself to program and began writing software to track clients and keep a record of case notes. “If you aren’t keeping up with your documentation, it’s the clients who suffer,” he said. His skill with data and systems led him to launch Eidetik, a company that provided back-office and software support to service organizations.
Beaven’s commitment to education runs as deep as his commitment to care. The first in his family to graduate from college, he’s made it his mission to open that same door for others. At the College of Social Work, he established three funds: the Beaven-Eidetik Doctoral Scholarship, Beaven Eidetik Graduate Scholarshipand the June Ashby Scholarship, named for his mother.
The scholarship honors Beaven’s mother June Ashby, who owned and ran a grocery store before becoming head accountant at the Job Corps. Despite severe arthritis, she worked into her 60s, raising her children while modeling strength and independence. “She was supermom,” Beaven said. “She worked all the time, cooked two meals a day and never complained. We didn’t know how lucky we had it.”
For all his accomplishments, Beaven insists he never set out to build a legacy. “It wasn’t a grand plan,” he said. “It was just seeing opportunities and doing something with them.”
Still, the impact is unmistakable: from deinstitutionalizing adults and building homes for children to creating scholarships for future generations his life has been about opening doors and helping countless others to find their way home.
