Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches

Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches has a lovely grassroots origin story: All 75 of the state’s sheriffs decided in 1976 to do something to help neglected and abused boys.

Their idea was to have a ranch in the country. It’d be a place where boys could live in a wholesome environment, go to school and learn skills that would “get them off to a good start in life,” said CEO Nancy Fulton.

The new nonprofit bought land in Batesville, and a mobile home was moved onto it during construction of the first permanent home.

Decades later, Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches has 20 employees, and one big change is that it also helps girls. Sibling groups are also welcome.

“A lot of people think of group homes as a dormitory with 40 kids on an acre of land with a parking lot, and we are not that at all. We are five large houses with house parents. Our kids — we raise country kids,” Fulton said.

Ranch kids eat meals together, do chores and engage in extracurricular activities. They have their own bedrooms, or share a bedroom with one other child. No more than four children share a bathroom.

In addition, those on the ranch say they’re a big family with cousins, aunts and uncles, she said.

“We give them everything a traditional family would give them except we can’t adopt them. … Our kids play outside, and they ride their bikes. And they climb trees,” Fulton said. “They raise chickens and goats. And we have cows and bunnies, all kinds of things. A wonderful opportunity for children to really, really learn and grow and just blossom.”

She joined the nonprofit as its CEO six years ago. Before that, Fulton had been in the mental health field for more than 20 years.

The ranch addresses one of the major hurdles people in that profession face, she said. That hurdle is that their therapy could help kids behave in school but it wouldn’t heal them because the neglectful or abusive situation the kids were reacting to would still be their reality. The ranch gives these kids a new environment in which to flourish.