In 1953, Reverend James Crowe had a vision for a place where “wayward” young people could find a “reorientation of self.” His vision was a working ranch where young men (we expanded to include girls in the ’70s) would get the guidance and support they needed to find a path to a promising future. That’s when Idaho Youth Ranch was born.
In 1985, Dr. Vincent Felitti was the Chief of Preventative Medicine at Keiser Permanente. He was doing a study on long-term health outcomes when he noticed that people who had traumatic pasts tended to have more dire health outcomes such as heart disease and diabetes. So strong was the trend, he turned the focus of his research to understanding more about how adversity in childhood related to health outcomes in adults.