Jake Holder said going out with his family often garners odd looks from other people. As a house parent at Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch in Batesville, he and his wife look after eight children, many of whom come from dysfunctional home lives.
“For us, it’s kind of funny because we’re younger,” he said. “My wife is 5 feet tall. Usually, she walks in first, and then here comes this string of boys with me at the end. Being young, we get weird looks.”
Holder is one of several men at the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch near Batesville who serve as father figures for the children. The ranch’s mission is to address, remedy and prevent child abuse and neglect by bringing children to the ranch and out of bad situations.
There are three Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches across the state. The ranch near Batesville has about 40 children, and they usually stay from one to five years, depending on the situation. Some are sent to the ranch by the Department of Human Services to allow their parents to have time to straighten some things out in their lives, but
others are privately sent to the ranch to get them out of bad situations.
Ricky Ingram, site manager at the Batesville ranch, has worked in various roles with the ranch for more than 30 years. As he looked at photos of past and current children who have been through the ranch, he made it known that he considers them more than just ranchers or participants. They’re his kids, and he hopes they look to him as their dad.
“About 20 years ago, our church brought a group to Memphis for a Promise Keepers event,” Ingram said. “I took the boys from my house. We’re sitting about halfway up, and the speaker said, ‘If you came here with your so-and-so, please stand up.’ Eventually, he said, ‘If you came here with your dad, please stand up.’
“All the boys looked at me, so I motioned for them to stand up. They did, with grins on their faces. They asked my permission first, and they were happy when I told them to stand.”
It is not uncommon for former ranchers to call men from the ranch for advice or to visit with their own children later in life. Ingram said they have had four or five former ranchers come to visit in the last month, and he regularly receives calls asking for advice on anything ranging from putting Freon in a car to marriage advice.
At the ranch, house parents and staff try to make the children’s lives as normal as possible. Program Director Philip Ives said there is a schedule that includes schoolwork, chores, family activities and free time, just like many households. The ranchers get an allowance based on their behavior and accomplishments, and the group goes on trips to places like a zoo or a trampoline park.
“We do things together all of the time,” Ives said. “We work on the farm together. We have family nights. It’s not always easy, though. When they get here, they usually don’t trust anybody. They’ve already been through horrible things, so sometimes it takes months to warm up to you, but they quickly realize that the people here are not here for a paycheck. We’re always there for a hug or support. They really do feel loved.”
Like fathers in other homes, the men at the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch work on teaching the kids the difference between a father who is mad and a father who is disappointed.
“When they get in trouble or make a mistake, they know we’re not mad at them, but we do get disappointed,” Holder said. “They’re finally understanding the difference between us being disappointed and us being mad. For a lot of them before [coming to the ranch], it was always someone getting mad at them.”
Overall, when children are taken out of their homes and brought to the ranch, the men strive to be the loving, supportive father the kids need.
“A lot of kids call us Dad,” Ives said. “They don’t have a father figure, and they’ve never had anyone to hold them accountable. They want someone to step into their life. We do a pretty good job, I think. They respect us and trust us.”
Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches is a nonprofit organization. To find out more about the ranches — including ways to admit a child in need or to donate to the organization — visit www.youthranches.com.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.