Giving children in need a chance

At Big Oak Ranch, we are reminded every day that we live in a broken and fallen world. But, we have the opportunity to show our children a way that leads to healing and life. This is because we serve a God who is both loving and good. A God who is unwilling to give up on His creation and has offered real hope through His son Jesus. The ultimate goal is for our children to find healing and salvation through a relationship with Jesus.

To help them discover it, we place each child with a godly housedad and housemom who are committed to demonstrating the love of Jesus through a Christ-centered family. In that family they learn to pray, read the Bible, and to give and receive love. They are given a support system that helps them navigate life and see it through the eyes of God. They learn who God is calling them to be and ultimately the purpose He has for their lives.

The Ranch is made up of comfortable, two-story brick homes, providing each child with their own bedroom. The houseparents in each home are full time, providing the child with a sense of stability and security. We provide all daily living necessities including bedroom furniture, clothing, health insurance as well as medical, dental, orthodontic and eye care and more.

Our children receive a private, Christian education at Westbrook Christian School located in Rainbow City, AL. They receive sound academic training with a Christ-centered curriculum that supports what is taught in our homes. WCS is a unique school, rich with diversity of students from all backgrounds. It serves and partners alongside Big Oak Ranch for the educational needs of the children in our care as well as children from the surrounding communities. Post-high school education and training opportunities through ASCEND are available to our graduates as we help them transform the dependent habits learned on the Ranch into independent habits necessary for adult life. ASCEND provides this training alongside fully paid college or skilled-trade education.

We desire for our children to be involved in extracurricular activities on and off the Ranch. Many of our children are involved in school and recreational sports, music lessons and academic clubs. Opportunities are available to participate in P21, our on-Ranch equine program and Big Oak Cattle.

We strive to instill a strong work ethic in each of our children by setting clear goals and objectives and mentoring them along the way. We provide opportunities for on-Ranch chores, which can be completed as a family and result in valuable teaching moments. We also assist our children with preparing to work in the surrounding community. All of our children have a savings account, and our goal is that each of them will work to purchase their own car before high-school graduation.

Our children come to us from very difficult circumstances, and this presents challenges as our children try to process their experiences. The physical healing that takes place can be obvious, but the mental and emotional effects can be long-lasting. We have full-time staff counselors ready to help our children overcome what they have endured. The partnership between our houseparents, childcare team and our staff counselors allows us to have greater influence and impact on our children’s healing process.

We are not focused on just one aspect of a child’s life, rather we provide them with opportunities to learn an abundance of skills in relation to spiritual, moral, physical, social, emotional, educational and vocational development. Our hope is that our children will not only reach all transitional milestones–obtaining their driver’s license, buying a car, mentoring younger children and more–but that they also will develop the necessary skills to become resilient leaders in their faith.