Ranch Hands Rescue
Ranch Hands Rescue - Where it's animals helping people and people helping animals.
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
50-60% of US citizens will experience at least 1 traumatic event in their lifetime (National Center for PTSD, 2019). 20-25% of US citizens will experience 3 or more traumatic events in their lifetime (CDC, 2019). 10-20% of US citizens will experience repeated traumas throughout their childhood (NSCH, 2012). Of those 10-20%, approximately 30% will be classified as "treatment-resistant" (NCBI, 2014). We focus on that 1-8% of the population who are unable to find the type of help that works for them. Many of these individuals are low-income, indigent, and on the margins of society. They are often at high risk to themselves and others. These are our neighbors, and they deserve access to effective, trauma-informed care just as much as those who are able to pay. Therefore, our program seeks to fill a gap in mental health services by providing alternative, evidence-based trauma counseling regardless of ability to pay.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Mental Health Counseling
RHR provides mental health counseling using unique treatment modalities, the primary one being Equine/Animal Assisted Counseling. We treat people suffering from trauma due to physical and sexual abuse, witnessing violence, the sudden death of a loved one and other traumatic life experiences. We treat people with trauma symptoms such as self harm, harm to others, anger management, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, grief, substance abuse, and relationship problems. We specialize in treating the more difficult trauma cases such as children that have been abused multiple times by multiple perpetrators. Many of these difficult cases are referred to us from other organization because they are not responding in their treatment program. An example of the clients we treat is Kylee, a 14-year old girl who was adopted by her uncle. She was physically and sexually abused by her uncle. Her uncle passed her around to his friends who also sexually abused her. She is sexually acting out in school, has major anger and depression issues including self-harm and eating disorders. Miguel is another example of the type of client we treat. Miguel, a 4-year old boy, was kidnapped by his father. He was also present when is father murdered his mother is another. Kylee and Miguel are just two examples of many who come to us for help. 75% of our clients are children.
RHR provides unique treatment modalities such as Equine/Animal Assisted Counseling (EAAC) using highly trained Licensed Professional Counselors. We are not a riding therapy program but a mental health counseling program that uses only Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC) and LPC interns with advance degrees. In addition to EAAC, we provide Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), play therapy, sand tray, nature, art therapy and faith-based therapy. RHR specializes in effectively treating the more complex trauma cases, such as sexual abuse by multiple perpetrators, and clients that are not making progress in their current program. We receive counseling referrals from schools, churches, police departments, doctors and other counselors. We also have partnerships in place to provide counseling services to over 20 organizations. A partial list of our partner organizations include: CASA, Children's Advocacy for Denton County, Friends of the Family, Child Protective Services, Journey to Dream, Promise House, Denton County Juvenile, Santé Center for Healing, Cook's Behavior Health Clinic/Hospital and the Clyde W. Cosper Texas State Veterans Home for elderly veteran's who are still suffering PTSD.
Farm animal sanctuary program.
RHR provides a sanctuary for farm animals who have experienced abuse and neglect who have special needs that are resource intensive such that they would normally be euthanized. The farm animal sanctuary has championed several world firsts in animal rehabilitation: the first horse to get a prosthetic without an amputation, the first sheep to receive a quadruple bypass, the first healing of a tendon in a race horse using nano-fiber technology, and more. The key to the program's success comes from its founder, Bob Williams, who says, "There is a solution for every problem," and "If they can do it for people, they can do it for animals." These incredible animals live out their lives with dignity and purpose as partners in trauma therapy for humans who have also survived abuse and neglect. They are the core of our Equine and Animal Assisted Counseling modality.
Bob's House of Hope
Bob’s House of Hope is the first safe house in the country for male survivors, 18 and up, of commercial sexual exploitation, also known as sex trafficking. It is the only residential facility to include Ranch Hands Rescue’s innovative Equine and Animal Assisted Counseling intervention. Founded in 2021, it operates as a comprehensive, wrap-around care program and safe house for young adult male-identifying survivors of sex trafficking. Bob’s House of Hope is a safe haven for male survivors to rest, recover, and rebuild. The goal is to empower residents with the skills and trades they need to sustain themselves and reach independence after a lifetime of trauma. The program is up to 3 years to ensure total trauma recovery, and the goal is to see each survivor reintegrate into society as a productive, valued member of their community.
Bob's House of Hope also spearheads several public awareness campaigns about the trafficking of boys and young men.
Where we work
External reviews
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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Dollars value of subsizied counseling services provided.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Mental Health Counseling
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of animals that live in the Ranch Hands Rescue sanctuary.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Farm animal sanctuary program.
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of clients who show a measurable decrease in PTSD symptoms
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Mental Health Counseling
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
For the last 5 years, we have averaged an 88-92% decrease in trauma symptom severity.
Number of survivors served in safe house.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Bob's House of Hope
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our goals are:
1. To reduce the number of life disrupting trauma symptoms in our counseling clients so that they can go on to live more productive and happy lives.
2. Never turn away a child needing trauma informed mental health counseling because their family cannot afford to pay for treatment.
3. To provide effective trauma-informed therapy for individuals who have not made progress in other counseling programs.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our strategy is to provide a place where people with life disrupting trauma can get effective treatment by employing highly trained, licensed professionals who specialize in treating complex trauma. These professionals are then further trained to work with our animal partners, themselves survivors of abuse and neglect, in the unique and serene setting of our animal sanctuary to facilitate healing and recovery. Our therapists are cross trained in the following modalities: Equine and Animal Assisted Counseling, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Trust Based Relational Intervention, Play Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and others. We also work with our animal partners daily to assist them in their recovery. Our strategy therefore is simple: It's animals helping people, and people helping animals.
In addition to our treatment strategies, we work with a variety or grant partners and local donors to provide financial support to those who cannot afford treatment. Our scholarship program is unique in that those who qualify are covered for the duration of their treatment with us. There is no session limit. There is no time limit. Our therapists monitor client progress closely by administering valid and reliable assessment measures during regular intervals of treatment. In this way, we ensure that our clients are receiving effective care, while also making sure that we are projecting our funding out far enough in advance to cover the full arch of a client's recovery journey (even if that takes two years, and such is often the case with complex trauma).
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The five critical resources needed to support our goals are:
1. Highly trained licensed professionals (LPC, LMFT, LCSW, RPT, Licensed Psychologist) with specialized training in trauma-informed counseling.
2. Financial resources to provide free counseling services to families who cannot afford counseling.
3. The serene setting of our animal sanctuary to enable counseling clients to feel safe, comfortable, and calm.
4. Mental health counseling services in English and Spanish.
5. Rescue and rehabilitation of special needs animals for our counseling clients.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Accomplishments:
1. We have treated over 1600 children, women, and men since program inception. Many of these individuals were with us for 12-18 months due to the severity of their trauma history.
2. We have rescued and rehabilitated over 560 animals since the start of our animal rescue/sanctuary program.
3. Clinically significant reduction of trauma symptoms for over 80% of our clients every year.
4. Since program inception, we have provided over $1,000,000 in scholarships for trauma survivors who could not afford services.
5. We have received numerous community awards, nominations, and recognitions for our trauma program and for our animal sanctuary.
6. Numerous firsts in animal care, such as: first horse in the world to receive a prosthetic without an amputation, first neuro-fiber mesh to heal a tendon on a mule, quadruple bypass for a sheep, successful treatment of a cat with a rare auto-immune disease, care of a donkey to become a 5 time cancer survivor, teaching a dog born with only one fully formed leg to walk on prosthetics without an amputation.
Next steps:
1. By February 2021, we will open the first safe house in the country for males 18-24 who have been victims of sex trafficking. Bob's House of Hope will incorporate not only the key element of safety needed for recovery, but will also build on the success of our animal sanctuary and counseling center by involving the residents in the care of our animals as well as provide individual and group counseling services at our Argyle location.
2. Bob's House of Hope will be supplemented with a nationwide awareness campaign that boys are sex trafficked TOO. This initiative has already been set into motion.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Ranch Hands Rescue
Board of directorsas of 12/14/2023
Mr. Robert Williams
Robert Williams
Marty Polasko
Bill Bono
M.D.
Charles Fisher
Debra Roan
Allison Sartin
Assistant DA
Matthew Smith
Tracy Murphree
Sheriff
Tan Parker
Texas State Senator
Frank Dixon
Denton Chief of Police
Kymberly McCarty
Lee Woodham
Mosquito Joe
Annette Doody
Teacher
Lindy Fisher
Mike Donnelly
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 07/09/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.