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Our History

A black and white photo of the first sign for Little City when it was established in 1959.

Established in 1959, Little City was founded by a group of parents who dreamed of a revolutionary environment for their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities to learn, grow, and reach their full, unique potential. Where others saw empty farmland, these visionary families saw a Little City full of big potential.

Today, that Little City is a vital, vibrant community offering a comprehensive scope of services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Our founding principles, along with a therapeutic community approach, continue to guide our programs and services for children and adults of all ages, enabling Little City to create hope, change lives, and challenge the limits placed on individuals with disabilities.

Our 56-acre Palatine campus features a world of opportunity for those we serve. The campus includes homes for adults and children, a Center for Education, a Recreation Center that includes a Special Olympics program, a Horticulture Center with two greenhouses and a community garden, our award-winning Center for the Arts and the Center for Employment & Business Opportunities that has helped countless people gain community-based employment.

Beyond our Palatine campus, Little City offers day programming services at the Countryside Center in Schaumburg and the Grayslake Center, providing dynamic classes, vocational skill development, and social settings for those we serve. Little City’s Foster Care & Adoption program has continued to expand over the years, serving families in and around Chicago, Joliet, and Matteson while finding loving homes for hundreds of children. Our Community-Based Clinical Services help families navigate challenges that go beyond intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Today, Little City is proud to be a leader in empowering and supporting those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and offering more opportunities to open their world every single day.

Little City by the Decades

1950s

In the late 1950s, a group of parents in the Chicago suburbs dreamed of a revolutionary environment for their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, whom “experts” often said should be institutionalized. This group drew up plans, purchased land, and broke ground off of Algonquin Road in Palatine to construct three residential buildings. 

Little City opened its doors on October 1, 1959 to provide help, hope, dignity, and love for 28 children with disabilities, and the dream became a reality.

A black and white photo of the first sign for Little City when it was established in 1959.

1960s

Little City made great strides throughout the 1960s, opening a year-round school, establishing an egg-producing poultry farm as a vocational training project, and opening a state-of-the-art training center combining a library, auditorium, gymnasium, home economics, pre-vocational and occupational departments, music room, and speech therapy rooms all under one roof. 

An innovative arts program was begun to raise funds through cleverly designed greeting cards created by the children of Little City. In 1964, Little City hosted its first golf invitational fundraiser, an annual event that is now the longest standing charity golf event in Illinois.

1970s

The ’70s were marked by celebrity involvement in Little City, with the opening of the Karyn Kupcinet Recreation Center, named for the daughter of Chicago newspaper columnist and TV personality Irv Kupcinet. The center provides adaptive recreational programming and sensory stimulating activities and was later renamed for Ethel & Joel Sharenow. Other celebrities visited or got involved with Little City including the famous Chicago Bears football coach Mike Ditka, TV game show host Monty Hall, and comedian Flip Wilson.

In 1974, The Anna Mantel Fishbein Florarium was established, providing therapy and enjoyment to Little City residents through the joy of plants and flowers. It was later expanded and re-named the Dorothy Rose Horticulture Center.

1980s

Little City continued to grow at a fast pace, expanding residential, employment services, and arts programming. Both the The Port Family Center, providing supported apartment and community living for adults living at Little City, and Little City’s first Community Integrated Living Arrangement (CILA) home opened in the ’80s. 

Little City’s Supported Employment program expanded to allow adults to work on campus or at one of more than 70 participating corporations throughout Chicagoland. In addition, the Media Arts Center opened, giving people with disabilities a voice in the larger community through media production and dissemination of cable access television programs. 

In 1988, the Families One program launched to provide in-home support to the families of children with disabilities. 

More celebrities supported Little City, including baseball great Ernie Banks, comedian Henny Youngman, Chicago’s own Jack Brickhouse, Barbara Eden of “I Dream of Genie” fame, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, and ABC’s Barbara Walters, among others.

1990s

In 1993, Little City’s Studio Arts program began, allowing participants to explore their own creativity through a variety of artistic media. That same year, the Special Needs Foster Care program was introduced to place children with disabilities, many of whom were wards of the state, in loving foster homes. This was followed in 1997 with the Special Needs Adoption program to place children with disabilities in loving permanent homes.

2000s

With the turn of the century, Little City continued to expand and grow arts and horticulture programming as well as children’s residential services. The Center for the Arts unveiled Special Arts (S’ART), offering classes in studio arts, music, dance, movement, drama, and more to children and teens. 

A gardening program was introduced, training residents how to grow and care for plants. Vegetables and plants grown in the greenhouse were sold to the public for the first time. The Children’s Residential program re-opened a fifth home on campus to increase the children’s population from 44 to 50 individuals. 

As Little City neared its 50th Anniversary, plans were underway to improve the quality of life on campus through expanded recreational options, and creative employment opportunities.

2010s

In the “teen” years of the 21st century, Little City continued to grow and expand essential services across all categories, including children’s and adult residential living; arts and employment programs, education, and recreational programs such as Special Olympics. 

Forced to close in the 1980s, Little City’s Center for Education was reestablished in 2011 and completed a major expansion in 2015, doubling the size of the day school and adding learning labs, a library/media center, therapy rooms, and a sensory gym. 

Community Day Services continued to grow with the Countryside Center joining the Little City family in 2017, and programming expanded at both Countryside and our Lakeside facility in Waukegan (now located in Grayslake). 

Fitness & Recreation, Employment Services, and Foster Care & Adoption all continued to thrive.

2020s

The early 2020s were marked significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic, which Little City braved with courage and creativity. Our heroic staff, leaders, supporters, donors, and the people we serve banded together to weather the extreme difficulties of the pandemic, and emerged even stronger as a result. 

In 2022, Little City launched a new THRIVE program for children with the highest intensity support needs, providing residential and school services for those with severe autism who would otherwise have to seek services outside of the state. 

In 2024, we completed the monumental 10-year project of the Duffey Family Children’s Village, providing six new state-of-the-art homes for children in our care. 

We added two new CILAs during the early 2020s, and also expanded our Foster Care & Adoption program beyond our Chicago office to Matteson and Joliet, IL.