Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches participating in ArkansasGives
EL DORADO — Matt Cleveland, chief development officer for the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches, discussed the organization and the upcoming ArkansasGives fundraiser at the Kiwanis Club meeting on Wednesday.
Cleveland has worked with nonprofits for more than a decade, beginning with a statewide social services organization that serves children and families. With these nonprofit organizations, he has worked to raise funds and awareness of their important missions and to provide a stronger, healthier communication with the people of Arkansas. He joined the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches in 2012.
The Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches was founded in 1976 by all 75 sheriffs in Arkansas, when they signed the
incorporation papers. “It’s hard to imagine an elected official from every county in Arkansas all getting behind one issue,” Cleveland said. “They saw a need to help children who needed a place and a home and they all worked together to meet that need by founding the Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch and incorporating us.”
The Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch is a nonprofit residential foster care organization.
Life on the ranch teaches behavioral acceptability, positive work ethic and how to find faith in both yourself and others. It provides a healthy home environment filled with emotional support to help each child learn to trust those around them.
The ranch is located in Batesville, where the ranchers live in a cottage setting with a house parent. Currently, there are four houses that hold eight children each. They are expanding their numbers by adding a fifth house this April called The Cove. This will allow them to have another house for girls. Right now they have three houses for boys and one for girls. “About 75 percent of the kids that come to us, come with a brother or sister,” Cleveland said. “So we’ve always had this need for more girl placement.”
The ranch will have a total of 40 beds after The Cove is built.
The ranch is a place where kids from all different backgrounds can go and have a stable place to grow up. “It’s a place where they can come home after school, get help with their homework, get around the dinner table and have a meal together, talk about the day and learn from the house parents,” Cleveland said. “The house parents are actually modeling what a healthy family looks like for these kids.”
On April 6, the ArkansasGives organization is joining together to show love for Arkansas’ nonprofit organizations, including the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches. It will be a statewide callto-action organized by the Arkansas Community Foundation, who has organized this event the past three years. “It’s really helped us raise some money for the Sheriffs’ Ranch and has been an incredible source of support for us,” said Cleveland.
Hot Springs’ Morris Foundation has offered to match the amount the Sheriffs’ Ranch makes, up to $5,000. “So that will be $10,000 in one day to support the ranch,” Cleveland said. “We couldn’t do what we do without special things like this.”
ArkansasGives is an online event that will take place from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
To donate to Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches, go to ArkansasGives. org and search “Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches” in the search bar. You can input your payment information using a Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express card.
The state covers five to seven percent of their annual budget for basic food, clothing and school items. Some items that the state doesn’t cover is paying for their house parents, their transpiration program and counseling services.
About 90 percent of the ranch is privately funded from individuals and clubs across Arkansas. They also have a monthly donation program called Hope Builder. “You can make a small monthly donation as little as $10, and that really does add up over time,” said Cleveland.
It costs about $30,000 annually to care for a child at the ranch.
There are other things you can do to help the nonprofit including spreading the stories, sharing their photos on their Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram.
One hundred percent of the Ranchers graduate from high school, with 80 percent going on to pursue a post-secondary education.
“There’s almost double the amount of need that’s out there compared to the amount of beds that are available,” Cleveland said. “The Sheriffs’ Ranch is one of those rare places that is a place of stability, a place that’s not going to change their mind on kids. They’re going to be there as long as those kids need homes.”