When Katie first came to the Ranch Campus, she had no intention of ever returning home. Adopted as a teenager, she feared that her parents loved their biological kids more and the resulting conflicts had torn the family apart. Her intention was to complete the Ranch program, move into independent living, attend college, and never look back.
Koda came to the Ranch Campus at 16 years old, so full of fight that the staff almost resorted to discharging him early for the safety of the other residents. “I had a whole bunch of anger problems,” he said, “It kind of ran in the family.” His home life on a rural ranch revolved around conflict with his mom and brothers, but fortunately, it also gave him a budding passion for horses and cowboy crafts. Koda credits the Ranch’s Equine Therapy with helping him understand for the first time that anger was something he could choose to control. Trauma can be transformed. Koda learned how to transform his trauma into something positive.
Parts of Del’s childhood were so traumatic that some memories are completely blocked. It’s as if his mind erased the parts no six-year-old should ever have to go through. But he will never forget the moment that changed his life, when a program director at the Idaho Youth Ranch refused to give up on him.
But someone else in his life hadn’t. When his mother heard about YOUTHWORKS!, she encouraged Dominic to apply. She felt the program would give him the help he needed to turn his life around. Dominic did apply but only grudgingly, without much faith in whether it would work. That changed, though, once he got really dove in and engaged.