RANCH HANDS RESCUE

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.

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).

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.

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.