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A Brief History of Hill Country Youth Ranch |
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Hill Country Youth Ranch was incorporated in March of 1977, and began immediately, with the help of community volunteers, to build its facility on 107 acres of donated land one mile west of Ingram, Texas. The Ranch is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation chartered to serve abused, neglected, abandoned and troubled children from across Texas. Since its inception, the Ranch has been home to over 1100 boys and girls. The first decade saw the Ranch expand to a capacity for 50 children housed in eight family-style residences on a 265-acre campus. Each house was designed to function as a family unit, with children and houseparents eating meals and sharing daily chores together. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the Ranch also built an administration/counseling building, a general store, a community center, a gymnasium, an outdoor playground, a garden, an orchard, a barn, a workshop, a computer center, a library, and a chapel. The second decade saw Hill Country Youth Ranch become a program-enriched village for up to 70 children. In addition, HCYR opened the Youth Care Training Center for certifying child care workers and an Assessment Center for severely traumatized youth. A greenhouse, a woodworking shop, a swimming pool, a counseling annex, a ropes course, a second community center, and a fine arts center were added to the village along "Main Street". Licensures were gained as a Residential Treatment Center and a Child Placing Agency. The third decade saw the Youth Ranch accept the gift of a 7,000 acre ranch 50 miles from Ingram, along with the challenge of building another children's home. The second campus, Big Springs Ranch for Children near Leakey, allows HCYR to provide an even broader continuum of opportunities for children, thanks to the development of a foster community for children, a retirement village for senior adults, a transitional living program for older teens, and a Charter School system for students of all ages who need special academic and therapeutic attention. As a result of having this broad array of services on two campuses, the Youth Ranch is now home for 112 children at a time, with all levels of service needs. Volunteers remain key to HCYR’s success. Two Auxiliaries, with memberships of 200 and 100 respectively, work to insure broad-based community support for the Ranches and for the children who live on them. An endowment was created in 1978 for the purpose of securing the future of HCYR’s operations by providing income to the program derived from a permanent principal that would grow over time. Thanks to generous bequests and wills, along with a savings and tithing plan instituted in the HCYR Memorials program, the Foundation has grown each year and today accounts for about 10% of HCYR’s annual operating budget in revenue derived from investment income. |
Ingram Ranch
Brief History of HCYR at Ingram
Where the Children Come From
Cailloux Elementary School ~~~ Throughout its history, the Youth Ranch has remained focused on providing quality long-term care to children who are not candidates for family reunification. The goal has been to remain open-ended, creating new programming to meet the needs of the individual child. Today, HCYR is expanding its mission to include a community-based network of services in collaboration with other agencies, with the goal of developing a system of care that provides a continuum of services to families and children. |