Idaho Youth Ranch: A Story of Vision, Leadership, and Healing | Ever Onward - Ep. 75

Scott Curtis, CEO of Idaho Youth Ranch, has spent the past seven years leading one of the state’s most ambitious transformations in youth mental health care. Scott's journey from math teacher to nonprofit leader embodies the powerful intersection of personal mission and community impact. In this deeply moving conversation, Scott takes us behind the scenes of the Idaho Youth Ranch transformation—a story of resilience, strategic vision, and unwavering dedication to serving vulnerable youth.

Growing up in a family that regularly opened their home to exchange students and unwed mothers, Scott witnessed firsthand how compassionate intervention can redirect lives. This foundation shaped his career path from high school math teacher to social worker, eventually leading him to the YMCA where he spearheaded the remarkable community transformation in Caldwell.

When Scott joined the Idaho Youth Ranch seven years ago, he encountered an organization with rich history but significant challenges. Founded in the 1950s on 2,500 acres of sagebrush land using repurposed barracks from the Minidoka internment camp, the organization had evolved over decades but faced financial struggles that threatened its mission. Scott's leadership stabilized operations while uncovering a critical statewide need: Idaho had no residential psychiatric treatment facility for youth, forcing families to send children to out-of-state facilities, sometimes as far as Arkansas.

The centerpiece of our conversation reveals how Scott and community leaders Robert Rebholz and Mark Miller launched an audacious $20 million capital campaign during the height of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Against conventional wisdom, this campaign broke fundraising records, demonstrating the community's profound recognition of the crisis facing Idaho's youth and families.

Today, the 258-acre Residential Center for Healing and Resilience serves youth from across Idaho, providing specialized treatment in a setting designed for healing—complete with private rooms, therapeutic spaces, and an on-site charter school. The transformation in these young lives is already evident, with the center's first graduate progressing from severe anxiety to mentoring newer residents.

Listen as Scott shares the organization's continuing needs, particularly for compassionate individuals to join their team as youth care providers. His story reminds us that when authentic mission meets determined leadership, entire communities can unite to solve seemingly insurmountable problems.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast we have Scott
Curtis.
Scott is a longtime friend.
Everyone knows Scott in theentire Valley.
He's the CEO of the Idaho YouthRanch.
He has just done tremendousthings.
His whole career at multiplenonprofits.
Was at the YMCA for a long timeand did wonderful, like
legendary things there.

(00:20):
Now has been with the IdahoYouth Ranch as their CEO for
several years.
It will be very fun to haveScott on today and to get the
been with the Idaho Youth Ranchas their CEO for several years.
It will be very fun to haveScott on today and to get the
updates at the Idaho Youth Ranchand all things in the community
because he is so connected.
So today on Ever Onward, scottCurtis Scott, thanks for coming

(00:47):
on.
My pleasure, it's great to behere.
How have you been?
It's been like that Usually wecatch up a little more than we
have.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, I've been really good.
We're really now lifting ourheads up completely above the
fire from two and a half yearsago.
And that took a lot longer thanI think any of us expected, but
some great learnings and somegreat improvements, honestly
from it.
So really excited.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Why don't you tell us a little bit about that,
because it's not like you didn'thave a legal going on.
It was right when you wereopening the ranch.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, it was right before.
We were in the finalconstruction stages of the ranch
, trying to open our residentialfacility, and we have a pretty
significant distribution centerand trucking center that
supports our 24 thrift storesaround the state.
That's where the fire happenedand that's what becomes pretty
critical here.
Is that it actually wiped outthe efficiencies that have been
built into our thrift operations.

(01:43):
Is that it actually wiped outthe efficiencies that had been
built into our thrift operations?
So that's it just, and it justtook a long time, took a long
time to rebuild, took a longtime negotiating insurance and
things like that, and we're in agreat place now, mission's
fully supported and we're justrunning.
And you know, you try and makelemonade out of lemons with
these things.
So there's some things aboutthat campus that are so

(02:05):
different now post-fire in termsof, well, one, safety and I'm
not just talking about firesafety, that was important, yeah
, because this was a prettycatastrophic event and
fortunately no one was hurt butother safety issues just in
terms of about how a truckingfleet operates on the same
campus where there's a lot ofstaff and workless and we also

(02:25):
have a store there.
We have an outlet store there,so we have the public coming in
and donating and those thingsused to intersect a lot more.
There was a lot of overlap andnow we've got the efficiency of
the campus built in.
So that's an exciting piece.
But it's mostly excitingbecause those things take energy
and focus from senior leadersto get through and really we

(02:48):
want our focus on the youth andfamilies of Idaho and what
they're needing.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
So we're now fully back, so I've known you a long
time.
I want to talk a little bitabout you and your dad and just
your upbringing and being here.
Let's just go back a little bit.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I'm not sure, if I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
But I want to start by talking about when I first
met you.
I remember I'd met you before,but I heard you speak at
Caldwell at the YMCA.
You won't remember this, but Iwas invited out, yeah you came
on a tour with us.
But you had an event out thereand you got up at at the event
it was our annual campaigncelebration.

(03:27):
Yeah, anyway, I, I rememberwalking out going oh my gosh,
that guy is legit and seriouslyit was.
It was so impactful on mebecause what you did is you got
up and you just talked about theleadership to get there and
what you've been doing andeverything else and and, like
you had all the stats of whatthat place meant to caldwell and
and and it was really impactful.

(03:48):
Scott and I remember going oh,wow, this guy's really, really
the guy.
And then I I watched what youdid with jim and then you went
to the ranch but before we getthere, because it was so
impactful hearing you that day,um, tell us about you and and
and tell us, tell us, tell uswhat the DNA, where it's from.
Wow, thanks for thatopportunity.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
That's a privilege to be able to talk about that.
One thing I'd say that's anoverarching thing that I have
come to appreciate more and morethe older I get is really how
blessed I've been in terms ofthe work I've been able to do.
The reason I'm able to speakpassionately about the things
I've done is because they're sogreat and because I've been

(04:35):
fortunate to be involved withthem.
So my background originally wasas a math teacher, so I was a
high school math teacher.
I've loved youth my whole life,loved, loved working with youth
, but I've been more drawn tothose that were on the margins.
You know struggling, but yougrew up here, oh yeah you want
me to go?

Speaker 1 (04:53):
way back.
I want you to go way back.
Oh boy, because, listen, Ithink I think like so it's.
Let me just tell you like we'vehad this like a little bit of a
.
We always are saying, herewe're doing with our time the
most beneficial right.
And I had that moment a coupleweeks ago where, like I do this
podcast, I've been doing it fora long time now five years and

(05:14):
it's had a couple differentthings.
And then it's a new thing isEver Onward, is our new branding
, with our rebranding of ourcompany, and I like the name, I
like what I do.
And then I had this resetbecause we're looking at the
next year's podcast.
I'm like am I doing the rightthing?
I'm telling you a little thing.
I'm like Great question.
So I sat down and I went throughwhat could it be?

(05:35):
What has it been?
Is there a way to make it morereal estate focused?
Is there a way to do it?
And then I thought, screw this,it sounds like you.
I just want to talk to peoplethat I want to talk to.
That's awesome, and I think oneof the things that.

(05:55):
So, if I think why I do this,what the best thing for me is, I
get to talk to people like youand otherwise otherwise we
wouldn't spend an hour becausewe're so busy to sit back.
But I want to hear, because thepeople that I admire and Scott,
you're at the top of the list Iwant to hear your story and I

(06:16):
think people want to hear what,like it, inspires people.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I do want you to start from the beginning.
Great, I was born on third base.
That's what I'm going to say,and I really recognize that I've
been blessed my whole life.
So let's see, I grew upMeridian and Meridian had about
7,000 people in it in my earlychildhood and obviously changed
a lot.
Ours was the only residentialstreet right off of Eagle Road,
surrounded by farmland.
You all will recognize that nowas the place where the village

(06:40):
has been built and Kleiner ParkI could smell Kleiner feedlot
from my bedroom window.
So, grew up in rural Meridianhad really wonderful parents and
a real stable home and Iappreciate these things more now
because of the youth I get towork with and I recognize that
when we talk about adversechildhood experiences, the gift

(07:04):
I bring is how I was developedthrough my life and probably the
gap is there's some of thosethings I cannot fully relate to,
right, because I had so manyand my house wasn't perfect, but
it was good.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
But empathy is a weird thing, because I've
thought this a hundred times, amillion times in the ER where
you want to be empathetic tosomeone's situation that comes
in and you're caring for them,but there's times you just can't
, because you know what I mean.
As much as you want to listento them and understand what

(07:35):
they're going through, you can'timagine unless you've been
through it.
And I think that's one of thegreat mysteries of life is how
do we listen to something,someone, connect with them, try
to understand them, but knowthat we really never can
understand what it's like to bein that position?

Speaker 2 (07:49):
And I think that's a lot of the definition of
compassion Without being able totruly empathize because you
can't feel it.
At some level you can say I'mcompassionate about this person

(08:17):
having a very differentexperience.
I love that military, so, youknow, grew up with a lot of
appreciation for service to thecountry, things like that.
My mom and dad met in the Navyhe was a submariner and she was
a Navy nurse, and so thatimpacted them a lot.
When dad left the Navy he gothired by Hewlett Packard and

(08:40):
then he got he was part of thelarge Hewlett Packard
development and relocation toIdaho.
Um, I don't remember any ofthis because I I really was, was
raised here.
We, I think yeah, I don'tremember any of this time of my
family but, um, he was broughtto Hewlett.
He was brought to Idaho as partof what was back then the disc
memory division that was gettingdeveloped, which became the

(09:01):
largest, largest Hewlett Packarddivision at that time in the
world.
So it was all a part of whenHewlett-Packard became really
involved in this community and Igot to see that.
And then my mom, as I mentioned, she was a Navy nurse and she
really got into the birthsupport movement, so she became
a birth and parenting nurse andeventually ended up working long

(09:24):
term for St Luke's and beingthe head ofa birth and parenting
development there.
So what that meant is that inmy early childhood we had a lot
of women sitting around ourhouse in the family room
breathing in very funny ways.
So I learned about Lamazereally early on in the 70s and
that was great and I think Ithink, just like the things that

(09:46):
have shaped us, I say I wasborn on third base.
Part of being born on third basewas having stability in my
family.
Right, and I, we we didn't havea perfect family and we didn't
have, we didn't have everythingand stuff like that.
But you know, I don't rememberever wondering if we were going
to have another meal, yeah, next, like where is that going to
come from?
Or shelter or things like that.
And I also just was surroundedby so many caring adults and

(10:10):
really representatives of caringfor others.
Right, my parents were great.
So when we were young they didexchange students, right.
So we had three or fourdifferent exchange students live
with us, one of whom I considermy brother.
Now he lives in the States.
He's Costa Rican, so he's myTico brother, and so we had

(10:31):
great relational stuff happen inour house.
But then we also had a couplethings that were really
formative for me as a kid.
My parents called these well,it's Good Friday, so we talk
about this getting a collectcall from God, because they got
reached out to.
This was now the 80s, the early80s, and you know the unwed
mothers thing was big back thenand that was still when the

(10:52):
culture was, you know, send thegirls away if they're going to
have a baby and they're underage.
And so over the course ofprobably about I don't know six
or seven years in my childhood Ifirst started remembering this
about third grade, but probablythrough eighth grade or so my
parents took in unwed mothersinto our house and that happened

(11:16):
about four, probably four orfive times.
It was just so fascinating tobe a young person and see that,
and so they would live with usuntil they had the, had the baby
, and then most of them actually, by the way.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
This is why we go back yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
This is like and it's , and honestly it's, homage to
my parents and honor, honor tothem, um, you know.
So, uh, boy, I don't know howmuch you might want me winging
off into stories we're off intostories.
We got an hour man well, we'vegot an hour, man.
Well, let me come back to thatbecause I will wing off in a

(11:57):
story, because this is quite astory that still, I just love it
about Idaho and grace andgoodness.
But I remember being a childand I think it was around fifth
or sixth grade and one of theseyoung women that came to live
with us.
It was around fifth or sixthgrade and one of these young
women that came to to live withus and she, um, I don't know how
to explain it other than to say, as a fifth or sixth grader, I
recognized my maturity was justgreater than hers, right, I mean
, just was.
And I started to realize then,wow, I have had a different life

(12:19):
than some people.
Um, and I think that that thatkind of exposure was really
healthy for me, because growingup in Meridian Idaho, it was
easy to believe that the wholeworld has this middle class
somewhat rural play youth sports, go to church, have lots of
caring adults in your life, andit was good for me to learn that

(12:41):
that's not everyone'sexperience, right, and that
shapes people and also there'sdecisions you make in life that
can impact for a long time.
So I told you I'd tell you astory about this because it came
back when I was in Caldwell andI'm not going to use any names
here, but when I was living inCaldwell there were these
wonderful folks across thestreet and they had two girls

(13:02):
that were sort of five yearsolder than my young children, so
just old enough to kind of bekind of like mentors.
They were the older, coolerkids across the street right and
so they did some things with mykids and they helped them do a
lemonade stand together and, ofcourse, they donated the money
to the YMCA.
Anyway, things like thathappened.

(13:27):
I'm just trying to think abouthow much detail to go into in
this story.
We had this young woman reachout to our family and she was
trying to find my parentsbecause she'd gotten their names
.
She was trying to find herbirth mom and, uh, this birth
mom was the one that had livedwith us the longest, had really

(13:48):
become part of the family.
Um, she probably was with usfive or six months, I mean she
actually really lived with usand then lived with us for a
number of months after she hadher baby and um amazingly
courageous woman and um gave agreat gift in terms of having
her child be adopted at a timewhen she could not raise this
child.
Anyway, this child came back.

(14:08):
This is 22 years later, right,and so my folks were able to
share what they knew.
We as kids were always told oh,they were adopted to North Idaho
or whatever.
We didn't know anything aboutit, they didn't want us to know
anything about any of thesethings, and this was back when
adoptions often happen indifferent ways, right, um, but,

(14:28):
um, so one story short.
This, um, this, this woman iskind of reaching out with her
birth mom, so she ends upreconnecting with her birth mom
and her birth mom's living inanother state and she's living
in another state, and but theyend up, they end up connecting,
and that was cool.
And then they decided theywanted to take a trip to kind of
really connect together andthey wanted to take a trip, trip

(14:48):
, trip and and the the, thewoman wanted her birth mom to
meet her adoptive parents andalso meet these other people
that were formative in theirlife, right, and we were a part
of that list.
So we got this call and, um,they were going to be coming to
idaho.
They were, they were doing aroad trip together.
I mean it's really cool story.
Right, great story.
They're going to be coming toIdaho.
They were doing a road triptogether.
I mean it's a really cool storyright Great story.
They were going to do this roadtrip together and we were on the

(15:13):
list of folks that wanted toconnect with right and my
parents had maintained someconnection with this woman, the
mom who had gone on and had afabulous life, so cool, great
marriage, stuff like that.
And so they were coming throughIdaho and we were going to be up
in Donnelly near McCall, and sothey were going to come by and
spend an evening there.

(15:33):
So we're up there and I stillremember it's a Friday night,
we're sitting outside pine treesjust chatting, just getting to
know Well, one hear what'shappened to this woman in the 20
years since he lived at ourhouse, and then hearing from
this daughter of hers about whatshe's doing, um, and her own
great story, and then I'm like,where are you going after this?

(15:53):
Oh, we're going up to, we'regoing to go up to mccall.
I'm like, oh, yeah, what do you?
What are you guys doing upthere?
Well, my, my, my, my parentsare up there and this other
family has a place up there andtheir family I was really close
to and I said, um, oh, wow,who's that?
And she said, well, they'refrom caldwell.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
And I I was living in caldwell.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
I said, well, who are they?
And she says the names of thepeople that live across the
street from us.
Wow, they were going to theirhouse.
I said what?
And?
And so she kind of explained itthat, uh, how she knew them and
she had ended up being a nanny.
Wow, for the two girls thatwere so influential on my kids.

(16:35):
And I still remember.
I still remember it was a, itwas sunday night, I was, I was
out, um at my house and and myneighbor across the street comes
walking across.
He says I need to thank yourparents.
I said what are you talkingabout?
He said I heard what yourparents did and he said you have
no idea the impact that girlhad on our family's life.
When we were in a crisis interms of a health crisis, we

(16:57):
really needed help.
She totally influenced who my,who my kids are, and I was
sitting there thinking and yourkids have influenced my kids.
And it's just fascinating thiswhole how the universe brought
that to me.
It was so cool.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, you hear these stories and that's not
coincidence.
Man, that's cool.
That's not coincidence, I don'tcare.
That's wow.
Thanks for sharing that.
You bet.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, probably.
Just took up about half yourpodcast with my little story.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
These are awesome.
Hey, one other thing, so beforewe move on.
So I had a guy that worked herewith me.
He's Kent Sager.
You got to meet him, yeah, andhe heard your last name and he's
like, was he related?
Because I worked with a guy atMicron, hewlett Packard I'm
sorry, hewlett Packard and Isaid I don't know, ask him.

(17:44):
And he went off about your dad.
Yeah, so incredible people.
Before we move on, what arekind of the legacy things you
remember about your folks thatare just like what comes to mind
?
What are the lessons you couldshare with listeners?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Man, tommy, you should have warned me about this
.
We don't have any Kleenex uphere and stuff.
Like I said, I've just been sofortunate I already shared a
little bit about just themopening up their home and things
like that really really lovingpeople very involved in
community.
I mean so involved in communityin terms of and also their
marriage was really important tothem and they put a lot of time

(18:22):
into it and we knew thatpriority and so they got
involved in a lot of thingswhich were helping other people
in relationship and um thingslike that, and that ended up
forming a lot of real formativefriendships for them.
So they they had a lot of othercouples and families that they
formed really closerelationships to, and so they've

(18:42):
had, they've been able to walkthrough life for decades with
really really deep, deeprelationships.
I think part of that too is youknow, I mentioned the military
aspect right, my dad was fromNew England, so his family was
in New England.
My mom had actually grown upwith career military, so she'd
moved all over the country.
My mom went to so community wasfamily.
They had to build it.
They had to create familybecause there were no there was

(19:04):
no other family here.
Um, ironically, they really didthat and most of their kids are
all here, you know.
So they've got family and allthese, all these friends here.
But, um, my mom's incredibleabout that, you know.
I would just say, hearing her,hearing her story from her
childhood.
I mean, I think she went toseven grade schools and three
high schools because her dad wasa Marine and they traveled all

(19:30):
over the place and it's sointeresting, you know, that that
made her able to adjust to newcommunities but also really want
to have roots and stay in placeand they really made Boise.
They really made Boise and Idaho, where they wanted to be and
then worked to create thecommunity they wanted to live in
.
It was great.

(19:50):
Yeah, I hear that stuff aboutmy dad a lot because he was very
charismatic, great speaker andhe was involved at Hewlett
Packard for a long time.
So I'm actually on my way outto our ranch One of the donors
helping us build the ranch.
I never met this person, He'dnever met me, but as part of our

(20:10):
campaign and he shared aboutthe impact that had had in his
career in terms of some of theconversations with my dad.
So he gave a gift that was atthe level of a naming
opportunity out there.
He decided to name the thingafter my parents, so there's a
walking path out there that'sbeing constructed for them.
So that's what I'm going to getto work on a little bit this
weekend.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
So there's a lot to get through Because I can, you,
can you kind of get us to theYMCA?

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Oh, sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Transition for you.
Yeah, I had Jim on not too longago.
Oh, jim was great, jim wasgreat, yeah, and we talked about
you.
And then big transition to theyouth ranch and I want to hit
the foundation of the youthranch.
You've told me the story andit's incredible.
But then I do want to spendsome time because I think I've

(21:02):
been involved in a lot offundraisers.
Yeah, I mean I've done a lot.
I mean it's kind of part of theworld I live in and I have
never been part of one moresuccessful.
So I talk every time, no matterwho comes in my door.
Now I'm like well, call ScottCurtis, because if you want to
go to like anyway, I want to getto that and the impact that

(21:22):
it's making, cause it's, it's.
It was very impactful for me tobe part of it.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
But but I'll talk a little.
Yeah, and I think I can gofairly quickly through the um,
the progression that gets me tothe UK, because the story is
fairly consistent.
I have been so fortunate to bedoing great work.
I've always loved the job thatI was in and not necessarily
been looking for the next one,but a door has just presented
itself.
It's been like oh wow, this iswhat I need to do.

(21:45):
So I had mentioned I was a highschool math teacher and coach,
but I really felt drawn to thoseyoung people that weren't
making it and I don't mean notmaking it in math.
I could figure that part out.
I really loved teaching math,but it was a life stuff, right.
So I went back and got agraduate degree in social work,
which is a very unusualcombination.
You don't have a lot of mathmajors in social work, but

(22:07):
you're really popular ingraduate school because
everybody else hates statistics.
They can't get through.
There's left brain, right brainand then there's that Exactly
right.

(22:40):
So when I first graduated withmy master's degree in social
work, I started working in thealternative schools.
So it was right up my alley,this Caldwell project, from
being just a dream people weretalking about and they're never
going to be able to get thatdone kind of thing.
To wow, this is getting somelegs to.
Oh my goodness, look what thiscommunity is doing with the
support of the what was then theBoise Y.
Look what this community isdoing for itself.

(23:00):
So by the time that they got togetting closer to the opening, I
was actually a part of theinterview process trying to hire
people to be the executivedirector of the Caldwell Y and
they went through a number ofiterations there and whether
they didn't find the rightperson or the right person
didn't want to come here, theyended up deciding we need to

(23:21):
broaden our search and allow itto be people that haven't been
YMCA professionals.
And when they broadened thatand my wife's been a big part of
any one of these key decisionsin my life she was one of the
ones saying I think you shouldbe thinking about this job.
And I said what.
I'm a social worker who worksindividually, doing counseling

(23:43):
with kids and groups.
I don't know anything aboutrecreation and fitness and also
managing that many people.
But again, one of the majorthings in my life was that
decision and I still rememberwhen David Durow, who's now the
CEO of the Treasure Valley Ycalled me it was April 1st,
ironically, but we didn't getinto that Said hey, we want you
to do this.
So Kathleen and I were sothrilled We'd already spent a

(24:05):
number of days just coming outto Caldwell and sitting in the
park or being in restaurants andit felt like a strong
connection for us.
A little piece to that isKathleen and I both did
volunteer work in South America.
She was in a large orphanagesystem in Argentina and I was in
rural Chile.
So we both spoke Spanish, butalso we had a kind of a passion

(24:26):
for community development andbuilding, and so what Caldwell
was really trying to do wasbring their community together.
And for those that can go back20 plus years, there was some
serious statistics going on.
It's unbelievable what was goingon there.
And again, such credit.
Caldwell has such great peoplein Canyon County has such great
people.
They said we're gonna, we'regonna throw ourselves in and and

(24:48):
the Y was a part of that, a bigpart of that, um, and the city
leadership and just localleaders and business leaders and
I can name the names, uh, here,because they're still a lot of
them still doing it out there sogot to work with the Y.
That was an incredible,incredible gift, you know, and
was there almost in Caldwellalmost 10 years being the first

(25:08):
executive director, startingfrom the, you know, laying the
sod outside to hiring the firststaff and having great people
just come on and then watchingthat community transform, like,
like.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
I think that, like that's the day I remember
sitting there and you showingthe statistics of phenomenal,
like, like it is thisprecipitous drop off.
Yeah, and you, you telling thestory of hey, once we had a
place that people could cometogether from all walks of life
and feel a sense of communityand ownership and belonging.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
It's incredible what happened, yeah, and a place for
youth and a place where peoplewere going to learn their names
and an option for young peoplethat were looking to belong
somewhere and at that pointwe're choosing gangs and things
like that, but for them to havean option and caring adults that
would be there.
Yeah, I mean, that wasn't easy.
That was big work and a lot ofwork and that was phenomenal.

(25:56):
That was phenomenal.
You just look back and say howdid I get to be so lucky to be a
part of that.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
I loved it.
You get to rub shoulders withJim.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Jim was great, david was great, billy Cliff I can
name all the names of the peoplethat I got to learn from.
The other thing, tommy, is notonly have I been blessed to have
the opportunities I've had, butI've gotten to work with people
that are passionate aboutmission, and that includes the
people that work in the places,but it also includes people like
you, because one of the thingsabout the we'll get to that

(26:29):
campaign, but one of the thingsabout being involved in
fundraising or communitydevelopment in general, is you
have to have the leaders standup for it to be successful.
You can't just be tooting yourown horn, you need people to,
and once that happens, it's likeyou take two steps forward,
they take three, you takeanother two, and it's this
momentum, momentum, right, yeah,momentum is huge.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
But, scott, it comes from authenticity, right, it
comes from deeply rooted,genuine commitment to cause, for
sure, for sure.
If that thing can be witnessedthrough the hearts, minds and
souls of the people involved,then it's just crazy when it
happens and that's why I send somany people your way because

(27:19):
people come in and they're like,hey, we're trying to raise
money for this and we really arepassionate about that, and
you're sitting in a room.
You're like, hey, man, it'sgotta be.
Like.
I know the words, I see thebrochure, I know the words, I
see the brochures and I actuallysee the need.
That's the other thing thatpeople don't understand

(27:39):
sometimes is the need can behuge, it could be palpable.
The brochure can be polished inwhether it's matte or a glossy
finish.
A lot of time goes into thatdecision.
And now chat GPTs out there.
You can write whatever you wantto write, but if the values of
the mission aren't deeplyingrained in the people that are

(28:02):
selling this vision, it ain'tgoing to work.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah, I totally agree and honestly, that's what
brought me to the youth ranch.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
So, so make that transition.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Well, I had so much opportunity to grow um with the
treasure Valley YM and I justowe so much to those experiences
and to the people I worked with.
So I had moved from Caldwell inmy role to being a broader role

(28:30):
across the organization.
I was in a senior role, workingdirectly with the CEO, jim, and
then David, and I was doingstrategic advancement role,
working directly with the CEO,jim, and then David, and I was
doing strategic advancementprojects and things like that.
So we were able to do the SouthMeridian YMCA, the Tomlinson Y,
which was another fabulousexperience with community, and
those were the things we wereworking on and I was really

(28:51):
loving that, not looking to doanything else.
When a conversation happenedwith me about the youth ranch
and my initial reaction was I'mnot, I'm not really interested,
because I'm in a great spot hereand also I've lived here my
whole life.
I can't tell you very much whatthe youth ranch does.
And so what was great aboutthat is folks said, well, are

(29:16):
you at least willing to have aconversation and take a look?
And I said I said sure.
So you know, the end of thestory is I ended up deciding,
wow, I could really, I couldreally grow.
Coming to the youth ranch and Ihave some things to offer that
are probably timely for theorganization.
Um, and, and decided to put myhat in the ring to be to for the
open ceo position.
Um, that was six, that wasseven years ago that started.

(29:38):
But let me go to the youthranch because you wanted to hear
a little bit about the history,because that's what drew me to
it, but I also want to highlightsomething before you do.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
I think I've got a few mantras in life, but people
follow people and I think ofwhere the youth ranch was at
that point.
If you went back six years andsaid to me, hey, idaho youth
ranch, what does it do?
I probably would say not, not.
I just would say I don't knowyeah, that's why I know they
have a few.
I know they have a few thriftstores.
But what I have loved aboutyour hire and getting the right

(30:11):
person in the right role, Ithink the story.
I mean you're storyteller,you're passionate, your mission,
your mission driven.
And once you get, mean you're astoryteller, you're passionate,
you're mission driven.
And once you get that nowyou're like oh, that's one of
the coolest things I've everheard.
It's like are you kidding me?
But I think bringing that outof obscurity and telling the
story and connecting missionwith people is what you're.

(30:35):
I mean that's what God'sblessed you with, so talk.
I mean it's been critical thatthat it's a great example of a
leader hitting a mission andthen taking off Right, right.
And it's only been that long.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
It's been six and a half years, man, january.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
I'm just blown away.
I just know where this isheading and what you've
accomplished Well and it's aweek.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
So when I looked at the, the first thing I looked at
was the mission and you asked alittle bit about that and we
are on such a solid foundationin terms of wow, there has been
grace operating here from thebeginning.
So in the 1950s, early 1950s,our founders, the Crows they

(31:17):
were this wonderful couple.
He'd been a military chaplainand was actually overseas while
she was writing all the lettersto senators and getting his name
on everything and working toget this vision of a ranch that
would be a healing place forwhat they called wayward boys
back then.
So that was a lot of effort andI could spend the whole podcast
talking about just theirefforts to get this.

(31:38):
Eventually they got, they got.
They were able to purchase, forlike a buck a year or something
, 2,500 acres in a sequa whichis right outside of Rupert,
idaho.
This was sagebrush land andthis was 1950s.
And so this wonderful coupleshe was a full-time school
teacher by day.
They brought in in the boys,they got the original land and

(32:01):
they started building the ranch.
There's so many cool storiesthat, for example, a lot of
people don't know this but theMinidoka internment camp, which
had been a Japanese internmentcamp in World War II.
Minidoka is not that far fromRupert.
They actually dragged acrossthe desert two of the original
barracks from Minidoka, tiedthose things together and that
became the original lodge forthe boys on the ranch.

(32:23):
So there's just so much stuffabout the history of the youth
ranch that is so cool like that.
And it grew from there and itgrew with really passionate
people, the original people thatwent there to work.
Reverend Crow went toUniversity of Idaho and
recruited young couples thatwere graduating.
People came from other parts ofthe state and they'd go and
live there with the kids andhelp the ranch grow.
So it became a full-fledgednonprofit in the 50s and then

(32:47):
started to grow throughout the60s.
In the 70s and early 80s wasreally when the organization
started to expand significantly.
Well, first they went co-ed atthe ranch and that ranch campus
is wonderful.
At its heyday probably served30 to 40 kids.
It's very remote, it's 12 milesoutside of Rupert, so this was

(33:10):
a place to have the kids kind ofget sent away to and get healed
right, and there was a lot oflove in that place.
So then the youth ranch reallyover many I got to jump to today
cause it's just too muchhistory.
But there's obviously pieceswhere the youth ranch got into
in the early eighties adoptionsRight, cause the state needed
someone to really facilitateadoption.

(33:31):
So and then the thrift storepiece started in the early
eighties cause someone from theyouth ranch had heard about a
place in California that hadsome revenue coming in through a
thrift store and so, long storyshort, you jump up to six and a
half years ago.
What I was seeing about theyouth ranch was they were in a
real challenge in terms of thefinancials were really

(33:54):
struggling.
They'd been losing money, thethrift stores had been losing
money, programs had beenchallenged because they'd closed
the ranch in Rupert in order tobuild the new ranch here in the
Treasure Valley and they hadthe property.
But the program plan and thefundraising the initial
fundraising campaign had reallyhit some walls.
So I was looking at theorganization and looking at this

(34:17):
history and this mission.
They had outpatient services inmultiple parts of the state.
They were running adoptions.
The Hayes Shelter Home is theonly shelter for runaway and
homeless youth in the entireTreasure Valley and that has
been operating since the 60s.
There's all these things thatYouth Ranch was doing and they
were a little bit on the ropesand I thought, man, this is the

(34:39):
place that kids that have fallenthrough the cracks.
It's like the last safety netfor some of these kids and
families and this is going to bea problem.
This goes away.
And as I started to meet thestaff and the board members that
were involved, they had drawn aline in the sand and they were
doing the hard work to get thisplace to be back.
And so the um, I really have toemphasize that because a number

(35:02):
of the returns for thoseefforts started to be seen right
after I came.
But things like you know, you,you're, you've done a lot of
great business.
You know you don't turn that intwo months right.
So when my first board meetingis showing positive financials,
that had nothing, nothing to dowith me.
That had to do with a year anda half of really retooling the
stores, doubling down on certainaspects of thrift, getting

(35:24):
efficient, closing seven storesin order to become more
efficient with the 24 thatremained, so huge.
That's been great.
And the timing was all greatbecause we needed the
organization to be stabilizedbefore asking other people to
give to it.
Yeah, and that was the magic ofof timing was a couple of

(35:46):
things I'm going to get to the.
Let me get to the capitalcampaign.
So you know my first boardmeeting, that the board made it
clear you need to have asustainable program that is a
residential program, becausethat's our flagship, that's how
we were founded and that's ahuge need in Idaho.
So we went to work developingthe program and then we did a
feasibility study and talkedwith a lot of people about

(36:10):
what's going on and one of thethings that happened, I think
for me that felt pretty linchpinor part of the zeitgeist of
five years ago.
You know, 15 or 20 years ago,in my role at the Y, if I was
talking about mental illness,right, or suicide or things like
that, people would talk aboutit and have lots of sensitivity,

(36:32):
but their own ability to, asyou were talking about, truly
empathize or, you know, justawareness, was different.
When you and I started thatcampaign six, five years ago,
when we actually launched thecampaign in 2020, when we talk
to people about stuff going onwith kids and the mental health
pieces, they all had their ownstory.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
They have a neighbor.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
They have a nephew or a niece or their own child.
That was a big shift in a 10 to15-year period, and that may
have just been my own awarenessgrowing, but I really felt like
people were ready to talk aboutthis, and then I think I just
kind of skipped a whole piecethere, tommy, though, and jumped
into the capital campaignwithout giving people the
background there.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Just a little bit of what the need was.
It is a significant need forfamilies in Idaho and we were
sending these kids out of state.
That was what?
Because there is nothing here,so I think that Nobody knew that
.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
The youth ranch didn't know that.
So part of the youth ranch iskind of figuring out how to
survive and get through whatwere really big challenges.
For whatever reason, at thatpoint the ranch hadn't been
taking Medicaid, hadn't beentaking insurance, had lived off
of donations and people payingas well as contracts.

(37:47):
Well, as those things wentdifferent directions.
They were in a financial crisis.
So part of that was saying hey,we're serving low-income kids
Some of the kids we're serving,should we be tapping into some
Medicaid reimbursement?
And what they learned from theMedicaid system was for a youth
to get residential treatmentright, it has to be an
accredited, federally accreditedfacility for psychiatric

(38:12):
residential treatment.
Idaho did not have a single one.
So what that meant is but wehave kids here that need
residential treatment.
So Idaho for years had beensending all of these kids to
other states, which the researchis really clear that the more
you can have families involved,quite frankly, part of the
reason-.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
And just think about the significance if you're one
of those families, at this pointyou've tried everything.
Yeah, I mean you don't gostraight to residential
inpatient.
I mean at that point you havebattled, yeah, you have fought,
you have done everything you canto make this thing work.
And you now are like, okay,that is the story of a lot of

(38:49):
these parents.
We are hopeless, yeah, and weare too.
And now you're like, oh,there's nowhere in Idaho, yeah,
I met this woman and she'sfabulous.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
She ended up being a part of our initial video,
Husband's a doctor.
They had moved to Idaho to arural community because they
wanted to be a part of servingthe health needs in our state
and they were really committed.
They were up on the prairie,they had an adopted child that
ended up having this level ofmental health needs and they
were basically told sorry, ifyou want to be near a child

(39:23):
getting treatment, you're goingto need to move to another state
, and they were trying to stayhere to live out their dream of
serving here.
Their child had been in threedifferent states in residential
treatment, you know, with themflying or driving trying to get
to them, and she'd been inArkansas.
I mean that's tough from Idaho.
So, anyway, that we we wereable to part of the capital
campaign was we were able tounderstand what's the data

(39:46):
saying about mental health andwhat is people's awareness of it
, and so when?
And then what's Idaho's reality?
And we really said and ourco-chairs of the campaign were
fabulous about this, mark Millerand Robert Rebholz, I mean I
still remember them saying thisis an Idaho problem, we in Idaho
are going to take care of this.

(40:06):
People rallied to that.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
So you had an authentic need that was deep and
mission-driven, that you couldconnect with easily.
And then you had you.
I mean, I'm not being like it.
You had the leader, because Ithink within an organization, if
you have someone that can tellthe story that it's not just
words, it's not just glossy ormatte, it's the thing.
And then you had co-chairs.
You had Mark Miller and RobRevholz.

(40:32):
Two of these legendary leaders,business leaders here in the
community, connected and theywere in it to win it.
I mean, they were missiondriven.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
They sure were.
Still, the part of that storythat I just shake my head at is
we'd done the feasibility study.
We knew it needed to be astatewide campaign.
And the fascinating thing aboutthe feasibility study I think
we met with 60, 80 people acrossthis state and that was just a
listening tour.
That was before we even hadco-chairs.

(41:02):
I kept thinking people, when wereally got down to it, were
going to be a little moreprovincial.
So, for example, I keptthinking people in Sandpoint are
going to say that would begreat, but I'd, I'd support it
if it was being built up here orwhatever.
We didn't hear that from asingle person.
They said are you kidding me?
Yeah, we're sending our kids toanother States.

(41:22):
Yeah, and and I know kids, bythe way, like that, I've got
some in my family and how are wegoing to?
How are we going to do this?
So was a huge piece of it.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
So talk a little bit about the property, because you
have.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Oh boy.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
There's a story behind it, but it is
unbelievably cool it is.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
It's amazing.
So this is in.
Its closest community isMiddleton.
It's a Caldwell property,caldwell address, but it's
really close to Middleton, soit's in rural ranch farmland,
right.
The cool thing about thisproperty is it was a tree farm
that was established in the 60sby the Hopkins family and some
of them people will remember theHopkins Christmas tree lots all

(42:03):
over the valley, right.
So it was this.
It's this kind of massiveforest about 50 of the acres are
probably just forest and treefarm and then it had become a
private estate and so they hadput in in addition to their home
, but they'd put in a nine-holegolf course and what that meant

(42:23):
is there's open space, there'sstreams and ponds, it's not a
golf course now.
It looks like you've driven ontothis cross section of Idaho.
There's ponds, there's streams,there's open fields, there's
pasture, there's forest.
We don't have a river rushingthrough it, and that's a good
thing.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
But I mean other than that but it's just amazing.
It's amazing, it's like alittle oasis.
You go out and you're like,whoa, this is perfect.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, and that's another piece that I say is just
, it's just serendipity or grace, cause you know, there was a
downturn here.
You remember that in the in,you know, 2007, 2008, and this
property had been on the marketfor many years.
So in 2015, the youth ranch gotit, but I, three months later,

(43:11):
six months later, the turnaroundhad started and it wouldn't
have come to us, cause it was anincredible really.
It was later.
The turnaround had started,yeah, and it wouldn't have come
to us because it was anincredible really, it was a gift
.
258 acres, no coincidences, soit's 258 acres.
The property was great.
So, one of the brilliant things,we had recruited Mark and
Robert to be the co-chairs ofthe campaign and this was in
2019.

(43:32):
I started in January, we didour feasibility study, finished
that in fall, and so the winterof 2019, early 2020, robert and
Mark had agreed to the campaignit was going to be a $20 million
campaign and had recruited mostof the campaign From that
perspective, that's huge, it wasa huge it was a huge lift, like
it's massive.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
And we said Like you hear that number and you're like
, okay, this is going to be hard, because, having been by
several of them four, six, nine,10, 12, you're like yeah, this
was big.
A lot of the same people getasked this is huge.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
And we had mapped out the campaign and said, okay,
it's going to be a year and ahalf to two years of getting the
initial major gifts and thenyou move to the community
campaign level.
Robert kind of looked and saidI'm not sure we're going to be
taking that long.
If you don't know anythingabout Robert Redholtz, you
should know that he's a prettyhard worker and he's competitive

(44:29):
and he also likes to get stuffdone, because he's got a lot of
stuff going on and Mark's thesame way.
So here we are, winter 2019 to2020, and we've recruited many
of the cabinet members andpeople were being brought in by
the message that property was apiece of it.
When we wanted to recruitsomebody, they would just say we
have to take you to theproperty to see if you're

(44:49):
interested.
And once people came on thatproperty, then they started to
say, okay, there's somethingspecial going on here.
And then they learned about thehistory and, of course, by that
point we were able to shareabout the financials of the
youth ranch and how those werestabilized and our impact on
youth.
So the timing was just perfect.
But then we all know whathappened in early 2020.
We were supposed to have ourfirst cabinet meeting in person

(45:13):
in April 2020.
Well, obviously nobody wasallowed to meet anywhere and
Robert and Mark were like, okay,we'll just keep figuring things
out, we'll regroup, let's justlet them know.
And I still remember it was Mayof 2020.
Most of the state was shut downand we were having a video call
between the three of us androbert says well, we need to

(45:35):
launch the campaign.
I said, yeah, well, we're gonna.
We're gonna have to launch itat some point.
Let's see when we get throughthis.
He said no, we need to launchit now.
I said we can't.
People can't even get together.
He said there's some peoplethat need something to be caring
about.
Yeah, so we're gonna launch.
So you may remember this we welaunched the campaign in June.
We had a meeting.
It was kind of open air meeting, but we got the whole cabinet

(45:59):
together, launched the campaign.
We had a little horse therethat had on the side of it
written the number of dollarswe'd raised to that point, which
was $2 million or whatever,committed but launched that
campaign.
And two million dollars orwhatever, committed but launched
that campaign.
And, um, we had said we have toget to 85 percent of the goal
to break ground right, and I'llbe darned.

(46:20):
We broke ground the next mayand uh, and it just kept going.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
So that's what's like , I mean I I hope like, like, of
all the things I've everwitnessed you have, have you
join, you have this incrediblegoal.
That seems impossible.
You have COVID hit.
Yeah, that was big.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
That was big.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
And you have this record breaking, like you broke
ground, it's built, it's open.
That's what I'm saying, like ifyou look about what's happened
in a short period of time.
So I can't wait to hear Likeit's beautiful, it's amazing out
there now and the and the andthe ribbon cutting ceremony, the
whole thing, and now you'reseeing patients.
Yeah, I'm dying to hear howit's going it's going.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
It's going really well in terms of transformed
lives, right?
So, um, the whole campus is isis running.
We've got a charter school.
That's there.
That's running.
We have youth coming in.
A lot of the stuff we talkedabout, because we'd gone around
the country and tried to takethe best of everything we saw
and then we built it into avision and kept talking and

(47:24):
talking and talking about it.
There have been some thingsthat aren't exactly the same,
but for the most part, like wetalked about, this is one of
those programs.
This is a family program likewe need.
We need the caring adultsinvolved, not just the staff,
but we need the, the kid, theparents, these kids are going
back to, ultimately, that'swhere they're going.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
That's where they're going their engagement.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
I'm I'm on my way out there today for family we have.
We have.
We have 24 kids there right now.
We have 38 adults coming tohave lunch wow with their kids,
all at the same time.
The families are coming everyweek um, our first graduate.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
You tell us a little bit, so talk a little bit about
the campus.
How many buildings?
Yeah, it's great, so justbecause.
And then, um, is there a campus?

Speaker 2 (48:14):
if someone's here oh, geez, um, yeah, you want to go
to?
Um, I would go to.
Uh, uh, let's, let's go to foryouth.
I we're on the website,everybody navigating it Go to.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
So there's Hayes House, there's Youth Work.
Yeah, go to Safe Place.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Yeah, go to Safe Place.
This is actually good for me tobe doing this.
I don't jump on here andnavigate this all the time.
Go ahead, let's see.
I think it's going to be ParentResources actually.
Oh no, I'm sorry, it's not SafePlace, that's a whole other

(48:59):
program.
Would you go to parentresources?
Uh, come on.
Yeah, jump to brochure.
This is going to help.
There should be a brochure onthe residential center for
healing and resilience.
Goodness gracious, hey, we gota lot of stuff on this website.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
There's someone in your organization that is going
to take you behind the woodshed.
No, they're about to get me.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
So man.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Hey, listen, the other problem we've got here as
I'm sitting here looking throughhere, it's thrift stores, hayes
House, equine therapy, there'stherapy.
There's youth rent, there's alot of stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
There's a lot of stuff going on, yeah, but I want
to be able to talk to it ifsomeone's getting up there.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
But anyway to get back.
You have so many buildingsthere.
They all went up at the sametime.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
It's this multidisciplinary program that
wraps around these kids.
In Idaho You're up to 26 kids.
Here we go.
Yeah, so it's called theResidential Center for Healing
and Resilience.
One of the things we learnedwas, first of all, the need in
Idaho.
So we did needs assessment.
We knew that the biggest needwas 11 through 17-year-olds.
Really, the highest need, ifyou can believe, is 12 to
14-year-olds, and more needamong females than males.
There's some stuff around thatI could get into, but so we
decided to build really a stateof the art campus with all

(50:17):
individualized rooms.
Every program that we went toacross the country, if they had
more than one youth in a room,they said if we could change one
thing, we'd give them a privatespace.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
They are going through so much Huge deal.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yeah, it's a huge deal.
So we really built this thingand said we actually we shrunk,
we shrunk, we removed a wholebuilding because we wanted the
quality to be and we said wehave to expand, we'll have to
expand, but we can't.
We can't do this on the cheap.
So that's what peopleexperience when they go out
there the kids do not feel likeit's an institution.

(50:50):
They walk in it's it's.
It's beautiful, like it's aninstitution.
They walk in.
It's a beautiful space.
It's also very intentionallybuilt.
I mean, these are youth.
Many of them come to us, arevery high risk, right?
So we can't have well, we justhave to have spaces that,
whether or not they look safe,we know that everything has been
scrubbed and placed and builtto not give them access to hurt

(51:10):
themselves.
Quite frankly, tommy Because Imean the majority of the kids
that are coming to us there nowtheir parents are scared,
they're scared, they've tried tohurt themselves and we're going
to try everything else and herewe go right.
So it's a 64-youth facility.
So we have everything that'sneeded there.
There are residential lodgesand that includes the social
space, green space and stuff.

(51:30):
There's a, there's a greatdining facility, there's a,
there's a recreational gymnasium, there's a wellness, there's a
wellness center.
So that's where we have 24 hournursing.
We have a psychiatrist, we havetherapists, psychologists, and
then we we in terms of solvingthe education component, that
was a big thing we figured out.
We ended up getting a lot ofsupport around the state,

(51:51):
including from our local schooldistrict, middleton, to build a
charter school because theseyouth have very specialized
needs.
So we're running a charterschool there.
It's a separate nonprofit.
That has been huge and I justgot to cut right to.
Here's the miracle.
That's happening.
We had a youth graduate lastweek.

(52:12):
She's had a.
That's happening.
We had a youth graduate.
We had a youth graduate lastweek.
She's had a pretty long stay.
Eight months is a long stay.
We really say, you know, fourto six months is how people
should probably think about this.
And the whole idea is you'retaking young people who, like
you said earlier, they've triedother things.
The parents have tried, they'vebeen working at it.
It hasn't worked.
We need intense 24-hour controlof nutrition, exercise,

(52:37):
medications you know this as adoctor.
Getting that balanced in aspace where everybody can see
what's going on and can tweakthat, that's huge for these kids
and then teaching them how tomanage it and teaching them how
to manage their emotionalbreakers.
So we had this girl leave lastweek, going home successfully to
her parents.
She's already plugged intoanother one of our programs.
When she came in August shecould hardly leave her room,

(53:00):
like curled up, not able toleave her room.
And when I saw her last weekbefore her graduation, I mean
she's walking around the campuslike she's an elder statesman
and she's interacting with theother youth, kind of helping
them along.
So that's life, elder statesman, and you know she's interacting
with the other, you kind ofhelping them along.
So that's that's life-changingand that's that's what has to

(53:20):
happen there.
Um, so we have 24 kids theretoday.
So our biggest gap and we have,we have lots of, we have lots
of youth eligible to come ourbiggest gap is the staffing
aspect right, the staffing andtraining, and if you could help
with anything, it's just to havepeople know that I was going to
get to that.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
So ways to help you, so a couple of things, like
there's the website, go thereand there's so many ways to give
.
There's a lot of ways to give.
And look at all your programsyou have.
You have the youth ranch thriftstores.
You have ways to give directly.
But then one of the biggestneeds right now, scott, is what
you're going to hit on, becausewe've talked about this before.
Yeah, it is staffing.
So you built this facility.

(53:56):
It's just hard to find, like,if you look at the world we live
in right now labor has beenfascinating.
Labor is just hard, especiallyspecialized labor well, that's
what I want to.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
That's what I want.
You can help me right nowbecause I want to correct that
like.
This is a.
This is a 64 youth campus.
Yeah, 120 full-time positionssome of them.
Some of those are veryspecialized, right, we need
therapists, we needpsychiatrists, we need nurses.
That's not our biggest gap,really.
Over 60 of those positions arebasically the people that do

(54:28):
what you and I do in our ownhomes.
They're the ones that are withthe kids at day day out.
They're walking to and fromschool with them.
They're going to the dininghall and eating with them.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
That's the companion services.
We call them youth careproviders.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
And they're the ones that are there also when a kid
starts to melt down.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
And they're the ones because they are very highly
trained.
They're the ones reminding okay, this is what you've been
working on, this is what you'vebeen working on I would have not
guessed that.
So we need people that are 21years old or older and want to
be engaged with kids.
We will teach them.
We can't teach somebody if theytend to be really volatile or
get angry or something like that.
You just can't have that kindof person, because these kids

(55:07):
need stability.
They need calm adults that cantalk them through stuff and like
being with young people Overage 21 and up to any age you
want.
We've got some great peoplethat they're retired.
They've come back and said Ijust want to be with kids and
I'll take the job that I can.
Just I'm being with kids andI'm just talking to them about
life Because we have to have 24.
This is shift work.
It's not like the old ranchwhere there were house parents

(55:30):
that lived in the houses withthe youth.
These kids are in lodges ofeight, but it's shift work.
So meaning we have threedifferent shifts.
There's somebody working day,swing and then overnight.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Yeah, and so now you're recruiting people working
swing and night shifts.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Yeah, so they need to have graduated from high school
and be 21 years old and haverelative balance in terms of
being able to manage their ownemotions.
That's that's our biggest gap,that's our.
That is we.
We get them.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
And and then the training that's required,
because we, we do put folksthrough a lot of training we
don't want to so for anyonelistening out there, uh, that
that wants to know more scott isif you don't know him, you
should know him, and if you, ifyou want to go take a little
field trip.
It is life-changing to see thework you're doing and, I think,
the feedback I'm hearing fromeveryone.
I mean, you think about thesignificance this is for our

(56:22):
state and the families of Idahohaving this resource here.
It's tremendous.
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
I will tell you a couple of cool things we said.
We said this is going to be forthe whole state.
I will tell you a couple ofcool things we said.
We said this is going to be forthe whole state.
In our first 18 months weserved kids from 13 counties in
Idaho, and the other piece isthe caregivers of these kids.
Our first graduate was fromSandpoint.
Mom had adopted this child,unbeknownst to her, had a

(56:52):
traumatic brain injury, so shewas dealing with brain stuff she
didn't even know about foryears and the only place she
could get seen was the emergencyroom where he would get
medicated and stabilized andthen he wasn't eligible for
services because he was stable.
But here's the important partof that story Mom drove to the
campus every week to be a part,yeah, of the family therapy week

(57:12):
, to be a part, yeah, the familytherapy.
So we are excited.
You knew about this cause, wetalked about it before, but we
are excited.
Our next, our next big push iswe're building family visitation
lodging right next to thecenter so that parents can come
and be there for weekends, bethere for overnights and get
time with their kids so they'reready to go home.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Well, hey, Scott, like you're such an inspiration
example to so many.
I hope you know that.
Hope you know how much we loveand appreciate you.
This community loves andappreciate you.
Thank you for the work you do.
Thank you for what you do forthe ranch but for the community
at large and for just youroverall example to so many.
It's been an honor having youon today.

(57:53):
I appreciate you doing this.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
I'm glad you decided to do this with the show
Seriously and it's awesomeknowing you.
You're a huge part of this.
Thanks, brother.
You've intersected a lot with alot of pieces of that story I
told.
So thank you and your family,thanks for coming on, you bet.
Thanks everybody, it's great.