Otter Tail Corporation Foundation grants $8,500 to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch

The Otter Tail Corporation Foundation awarded $8,500 to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, Fargo, to furnish a Balanced Learning Environment in the Library/ Media room in Dakota Memorial School, the on-campus school of Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.

Dakota Memorial School educates students with complex learning needs due to psychiatric, behavioral, social/emotional, and trauma challenges. Though these children have been presented with these challenges, they can learn and be successful in an individualized learning environment.

Balanced Learning Environments are an innovative way to help students succeed in education by transforming classrooms into spaces that meet the needs of all kids using specialized equipment and sensory items. Providing these alternative options in the classroom gives students the opportunity to stay in the least restrictive environment (the general education classroom). Balanced Learning Environments allow Ranch staff to meet children where they are in the classroom, a key tenet to treatment at the Ranch.

The Otter Tail Corporation Foundation’s gift will provide another therapeutic and educational space for children and their families, where they can find success now and in the future.

Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch is a Christ-centered residential treatment and education center for children and their families. The Ranch helps the most troubled, complicated, and amazing kids by providing best-in-class psychiatric therapy and trauma-informed care, where staff look kids in the eye, walk with them, and help them become their best selves. In addition to Residential Treatment Facilities in Fargo, Bismarck, and Minot, the Ranch provides Outpatient Psychiatric and Psychological Services, and Spiritual Life Programs.

The mission of the Otter Tail Corporation Foundation is to connect with their communities to support young minds, invest in the current and future workforce, create a vibrant culture and vital communities, improve health and human services, and protect natural resources. They focus resources on the communities where they work and live. Funds are allocated for innovative projects and programs that create measurable impacts in the areas of education; health and human services; community, civic, and cultural development; and the environment.