Founded by Cal Farley in 1939, Boys Ranch is one of America's largest privately-funded child and family service organizations, specializing in residential services provided at no cost to the families of children in its care.
At its flagship campus, Boys Ranch offers residential programs where children live in homes or cottages and are supported by 24-hour care and services in a close-knit community setting. Residents attend school on campus and participate in academic, experiential, athletic, and extracurricular activities.
Houseparent couples, caseworkers, other adult mentors and professionals guide the children to develop their potential and help them become principled, contributing members of society upon graduation or completion of their individual therapeutic plans.
Boys Ranch sits on about 12,000 acres in the rugged mesas northwest of Amarillo, Texas. Boys Ranch itself is a self-supporting community on a 1,000-acre footprint. While at first glance, the Boys Ranch campus might appear much like any other Texas Panhandle town, it is much more. Open to at-risk children ages 11 to 17, Boys Ranch is an entire community built intentionally to surround children from across the nation with nurturing support and structure.
Cal Farley’s provides professional programs and services in a Christ-centered atmosphere to strengthen families and support the overall development of children.
Strengths-Based Approach
How you approach a challenge has a great deal to do with how successful you’ll be at solving it. At Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, we don’t see the young people who come to us as problems in need of a solution. Instead, we approach them from a completely different perspective: We see their strengths.
Many of the youth Boys Ranch serves come from difficult backgrounds that have forced them to develop methods to cope with their environments. These coping mechanisms allow a child to get through challenging circumstances, but can create obstacles in other areas of their life. The caring professionals at Boys Ranch identify areas of a child’s life that are working well for them, and use those areas as a foundation on which to nurture a healthy, well-adjusted child.
Boys Ranch always seeks to understand why a child behaves as he does. After all, our purpose isn’t to punish poor behavior or lackluster performance. Instead, Boys Ranch wants to equip the child to choose better behaviors or increase his performance through his own choices.
Boys Ranch sees the promise in every child we serve, and we’re committed to helping them achieve it.
In our Christ-centered atmosphere, love, acceptance, encouragement, hope and compassion can flow. We recognize others as children of God with intrinsic worth, value, and purpose. Our Houseparents need to understand this — so maybe one day the children they serve will, too.
Cal Farley’s provides excellent benefits for staff, including medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, paid vacation and sick leave and a 401(k) retirement plan with company match. Certain 24-hour on-campus positions, such as house parents, offer additional benefits.
The Cal Farley’s Model of Leadership & Service comprises the universal needs of safety, belonging, achievement, power, purpose and adventure. We believe when these six areas of need are met individuals are able to reach their fullest potential. We believe challenging behavior stems from one or more of these needs not being met — or being met inappropriately. Our model also takes into account neurodevelopmental and relational health, past experiences and learning. Within this framework, we can move from the belief that behavior is simple willful defiance to being curious as to what need is behind the behavior.
In response, we view these situations as opportunities for instruction and intervention in an attempt to better meet a child’s needs. We understand there is a need to provide both structure and nurturing to limit the present behavior and facilitate lasting change. Relationships that are restorative and unconditional are key.
Within this context, we strive to identify each individual’s unique gifts and strengths. When used intentionally, our personalized interventions will provide opportunities for children to meet their needs, improve relationships, cultivate their strengths, develop self-control, maintain dignity and learn new skills.
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