PROMISING
FUTURES SPRING 2018
Profiles
of courageous transformations
“Without Idaho Youth Ranch I don’t know where I’d be. Maybe just like my bio mom or dead or in jail. But I have a son. My life is good. I am so thankful for everything you’ve done for me. I know that it saved my life.” “The abuse started before I was born. My birth mom was using meth while she was pregnant and I was born addicted.” Nicole never knew a stable home. She was released directly into foster care and lived in 12 different foster homes before her 10th birthday. “I loved my 11th foster parents. I wanted them to adopt me because they were the first people to ‘parent’ me. I felt stable for the first time in my life,” Nicole said. Foster home number 12 adopted her instead. “It’s like they lost patience with me. I think we made it two years and it was just constant conflict. I’m sure I wasn’t perfect, but I was a kid.” By the time Nicole came to Hays House at 12-years-old, she was on 15 different prescriptions. Nicole lived at Hays House until she transitioned into the Ranch program in Rupert where she lived from the time she was 13 to 15-years-old. She returned home hopeful about creating a relationship with her adoptive parents. “I think we made it 6 months,” Nichole said. “I couldn’t live with my adoptive mom.
When they adopted me, they promised to offer a safe home and love, and they broke that promise. My adoptive dad tried, but he just wouldn’t stand up to his wife. The emotional abuse was too much.” She returned to the Ranch where she stayed another 18 months and then lived in Hays until she turned 18. “All the things you are supposed to learn growing up—all those pivotal moments that kids are supposed to have – I learned at the Ranch and Hays. I learned responsibility and work ethic. Just simple things like doing my homework or making my bed. It was stable and safe.” Nicole said. Smiling, she added, “I was a pain, too. I was lazy and didn’t want to get a job, but the people at Hays made me go out and job hunt so that I would be able to take care of myself when I turned 18. They held me accountable and never lost patience with me.” In the years since she turned 18, Nicole came back to get financial assistance for her first apartment and her car. “I had this ugly minivan, but I was so
proud of it because it was mine. It was the first thing I ever really owned for myself.”
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W W W.Y O U T H R A N C H . O R G
Despite years of emotional abuse and abandonment, Nicole has healthy, happy relationships in her life. She fell in love. She reconciled with her birth mother, who has been drug-free for 12 years now and considers her a friend. She and her fiancé have a son together and are saving to build a home. Nicole is proud to be the youngest QA manager at Expedia.com, the online travel website. “I got 3 promotions in my first 6 months at Expedia. I have a great work ethic now, and I know I owe that to the Ranch.”
My moms – my bio mom and my adoptive mom —taught me what kind of parent I didn’t want to be. Idaho Youth Ranch taught me what kind of parent I could be. Today her little, happy family is thriving. Despite a busy work schedule, Nicole regularly volunteers at Idaho Youth Ranch because she loves giving back to a program that, she says, gave her so much. “Without Idaho Youth Ranch I don’t know where I’d be. Maybe just like my bio mom or dead or in jail. But I have a son. My life is good. I am so thankful for everything you’ve done for me. I know that it saved my life.”
DONOR SPOTLIGHT: ROB AND LANA LUCUS Rob and Lana Lucus, like so many out of donors, believe in giving kids a chance. They believe that unfortunate circumstances shouldn’t define a child’s entire life. They believe that every child deserves help, and not just any help, but the kind of help that will generate real outcomes and create a better future. “This is an important cause to us because both of us came from a situation where we had our children before we met and we know how difficult it is raising a kid as a single parent. We’ve experienced the struggles that single parents have when it comes to raising kids,” said Lana. “We were really lucky- both of our kids turned out pretty exceptional. And I know there are kids out there who need a lot of help, so it’s neat to see an organization that jumps in and helps them.” Rob and Lana have been donors for over a decade. It started with clothing and household items at the thrift stores, but soon they realized the extent of Idaho
Promising Futures
Youth Ranch’s mission and felt they could do more. That’s when they started giving financially as well. “A lot of programs that Idaho Youth offers aren’t cookie cutter solutions, which is what I really like,” Rob explained. “Every kid is treated as an individual and unique, with their own unique set of skills and problems. Every kid is going to need a unique solution.
“I like that Idaho Youth Ranch strives to provide that unique solution to whatever the problem at hand may be.” Idaho Youth Ranch is not a place—it is a community of people like Rob and Lana with passion and commitment to giving kids in our communities a safe place to heal, overcome trauma, and succeed. Together, we can help kids and families in crisis find a new way forward to a promising future.
Thank you!
ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES Anyone can see when a child is in trouble. Trauma – like neglect, abuse, violence, loss, abandonment, or years of stress during childhood—is transformative. The only question is how it will transform the life of a child. Without intervention, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are strongly associated with drugs, alcohol tobacco use, promiscuity, suicide, and depression. In Idaho, 24.3% of children experience 2 or more ACEs making them: • 4x as likely to become alcoholics, • 2.9x more likely to do illicit drugs, • 3x more likely to attempt suicide, • 2.4 x as likely to experience depression. We dream of a brighter future for Idaho’s kids. Therapeutic interventions give kids the skills they need to overcome ACEs and transform trauma into strength and resiliency. With your help, we can change the landscape of the future by stopping the generational cycle of trauma.
WAYS TO GIVE SPOTLIGHT: HEWLETT PACKARD It was once said that if you do good in the community, you will do well in business. Idaho is home to some generous companies who offer employer match programs to help their employees meet their philanthropic goals. HP in Boise chose Idaho Youth Ranch as the beneficiary of their 2018 Charitable Auction Giving Campaign. Their online auction for their employees was filled with handmade gifts and services from employees as well as fun filled baskets filled with local events and goodies. Over $26K was collected to provide life-changing therapies to vulnerable kids and families in Idaho! We thank HP’s efforts to also share IYR’s mission and programs with their employees. continued...
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We appreciate HP’s help this year in printing some of our informational brochures and flyers, helping us use those extra dollars to reinvest into these children’s future.mission and programs with their employees. We appreciate HP’s help this year in printing some of our informational brochures and flyers, helping us use those extra dollars to reinvest into these children’s future. HP has also set up a special tour of their facility for the kids in our residential programs. Their goal is to introduce the young people to the practical applications of coding to inspire their interests in STEM-related fields. HP wants to encourage the pursuit of technology-related careers and provide young people with growth opportunities for a positive future. Thank you, HP! We’re so grateful for your support of our mission and your commitment to Idaho’s most vulnerable youth! If you would like to discuss ways you can get your company involved, reach out to Stacey Moody, Director of Events and Corporate Sponsorships at smoody@youthranch.org
VOLUNTEER HIGHLIGHT: BOISE NOON OPTIMISTS When you sit down to talk Mike and Stub of Boise Noon Optimists, it’s easy to see that the word “optimist” is really an understatement for these two gentlemen. “My story is that I’ve been an optimist all my life,” Stub explains, “I just didn’t know we were organized until I got to Boise.” Optimist International is a century-old organization whose goal is to work each day to make futures brighter by bringing out the best in children, their communities, and themselves. In Boise, Optimists like Mike and Stub bring that vision to life by helping Idaho Youth Ranch. “Going all the way back into the 1980’s, we got involved with the Youth Ranch.” Stub goes on, “Ever since then, we have a Christmas party, where we hold an auction and the funds generated are used to buy ChristSimply incredible! mas gifts for the Youth Ranch and Hays House.” What started with a Christmas auction has slowly turned into something more over the years, including volunteering every month to cook breakfast for the kids at Hays House in Boise. These guys get the chance to go beyond what most volunteers experience, they get the chance to really see these kids grow and thrive. Mike shared an example of getting to experience that first hand: “There was one little girl who wouldn’t talk to anybody the first time we met her,” Mike says, “And when we saw her I walked up to her and said ‘hey, I know you’ and she smiled and said ‘I know you too.’ And after that, she chatted with us all through breakfast.” Thank you, Boise Noon Optimists for your incredible commitment to Idaho’s kids. Your support for Idaho Youth Ranch and the kids in our community is so incredible!
Thank you Mike & Stub
Promising Futures