WONDER WOOD RANCH
Hope on Hooves
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Wonder Wood Ranch seeks to bring hope through horses and other ranch animals to kids/youth with high trauma, including gang-impacted, homeless, low-income, and other disadvantaged kids and youth in Monterey County. We bring equine education and therapy to the neediest kids in our community who have no other access to horses or the ranch environment. We also address literacy and social development needs.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Hope on Hooves
20-30 low-income, underprivileged, or homeless kids per month come to the ranch, to experience a day of hands-on equine education. We target unreached high-crime, at-risk areas of our city and bring kids from those areas to our Ranch to learn about horses and to ride, usually for the first time. You should see the look on a kid’s face when he first sits on a horse and realizes there can be more to life than gangs, drugs, and desperation. From atop a horse, kids find a new perspective, a better perspective, on life.
We also provide food, crafts, lessons in grooming, donkey care, and other fun farm animals such as chickens and bunnies.
Horses & Heroes
Horses & Heroes is our program for foster kids and you. It focuses on using horses to give kids the tools they need to become heroes in their own communities. This program teaches the value of overcoming fear, past hurts, and negative pressure so that kids/youth can value others, make good choices, and impact the lives of siblings, friends, and classmates. Through this program, kids are encouraged to be the positive change in their communities and lives.
Animals & Art
Our Animals & Art program combines the power of animals and artistic expression to heal and give hope to kids who are the most at-risk in our community. Professional artists and teachers of art partner with us and our animals to open the world of art to kids. Kids learn basic forms of art (painting, sculpture, sketch, watercolor, etc.) with animals to increase the personal impact of this program.
TAILS Leadership & Life Skills Academy
T.A.I.L.S stands for:
Trauma-informed
Animal-assisted
Interactive
Leadership & Life
Skills development
TAILS is a weekly program either offsite (such as at juvenile hall) or onsite at Wonder Wood Ranch. Each week, various animals are incorporated into the session, such as full-sized or miniature horses or donkeys, sheep, goats, chickens, chinchillas, guinea pigs, etc.. Our staff facilitates a trauma-informed, interactive session designed specifically to develop positive, compassionate leadership skills in trauma-impacted kids/youth. Our fun, hands-on methods and activities help kids/youth to break through long-standing barriers so that they can envision a violence-free future and acquire the tools to accomplish such a future! This program is also available in individual sessions.
Creative Writing Academy
Taught by a multi-published, award-winning professional author of both fiction and non-fiction, this course will combine creative writing instruction with animal-related activities at the Ranch. Participants will learn how to express themselves and communicate effectively through writing. The goal of this course is for each participant to create a publishable piece of writing that will be included in a compilation after the course has concluded. The instructor for this course also teaches workshops and seminars for professional writers as well as for students and has found that writing has a unique healing effect on kids and youth as they learn to express themselves through words.
Summer Horse Camps/Camp Esperanza
Our summer horse camps aim to transform lives through focused week-long camps during the summer. Kids learn about ranch life, learn to ride on their own, and are trained for positive life activities. Camp changes lives and will be remembered for a lifetime! Our Camp Esperanza is one of these camps, offered in partnership with the DA's Victim's Unit, YWCA, Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, and Monterey County Behavior Health.
Picnic in the Pasture
Picnic in the Pasture is a fun program for kids of all ages. Our most basic, introductory program allows kids to experience our animals while having a fun "picnic" at the Ranch. We find that even simple exposure to the Ranch environment and the animals can open kids to hope and new perspectives in life. A mere $10 can provide lunch and a wonder-filled experience for kids who otherwise are stuck inside their homes due to neighborhood violence and gang activity.
Boronda Manor Horses & Hope
Our Boronda Manor program brings art, fun, and wonder of childhood to kids at Boronda Manor and other low income apartment complexes in North Salinas. Wonder Wood Ranch has targeted a specific high-crime area in North Salinas to bring this impactful program. Our first program has launched at Boronda Manor, a low-income apartment complex with over 500 kids. Regularly, we bring a message of hope along with animals-related art, crafts, activities, food, and other fun to the kids at Boronda Manor, at no cost to them. We hope to expand to other low-income apartment complexes in the area as well as the local elementary and middle schools. We aim to transform this gang-impacted area of our city with the power of horses and hope!
Where we work
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of participants attending course/session/workshop
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Social and economic status, Children and youth, Foster and adoptive children, Orphans, People with disabilities
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Wonder Wood Ranch is beginning to do more intensive work with trauma-impacted youth.
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?
We aim to introduce disadvantaged kids in Monterey County to life options other than gangs and drugs, expose them to alternate choices, and educate them on those choices using equine education, and pairing animals with literacy, writing, art, and other educational programming. We also aim to partner with other nonprofit organizations in our community to enhance our mutual goals.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We pair animals (horses, miniature horses, donkeys, miniature donkeys, pigs, rabbits, chinchillas, chickens, etc.) as well as activities such as archery with art programs, writing programs, literacy programs, gang prevention and intervention programs, etc. to make the greatest impact. Our programs are so unique that they are able to make significant life impact.
We also partner with other effective nonprofits in our community to bring Hope on Hooves to their clients and increase the impact of their programs.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have professional volunteer artists, writers, educators, equine experts, etc. in our programs.
We also have over 50 animals (with needed equipment), an archery range (with equipment), and the onsite facilities to run our programs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Last year we served over 1,000 disadvantaged kids, bringing hope on hooves to our target youth and kids. We hope to expand our outreach to more foster kids, human trafficking victims, and victims of violent crime.
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?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, 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
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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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.
WONDER WOOD RANCH
Board of directorsas of 06/10/2024
Marlo Schalesky
Jean Waddy
Central Coast College
Sarah Eddings
Accountant
Anthony Santacruz
Student
Miranda Beymer
MA Student, UC Riverside
Carol Cervantes
Gang-Impact Expert, City of Salinas
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? Yes
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:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/02/2022GuideStar 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 analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- 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 have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- 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.