How Can You Help Children Who Need Love and Security?

             Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when children are reared in a loving and secure home. However, the biological or adoptive family may not always provide such a place. In such cases, it is helpful when another family can offer love and security.

            According to Naomi Schaefer Riley, the Peppers Ranch offers love and security to numerous children. It is located about 30 minutes from Oklahoma City in the Guthrie area. “The ranch harnesses an old-fashioned understanding of family, neighborhood and community to solve the problems of a new generation of displaced children.” 

            Peppers Ranch is 160 acres of land that was donated by Hal French, a local oil and gas entrepreneur. He “had grown up near a boys home and often played with the children there.” He “wanted to create a similar opportunity for more kids.” He opened Peppers Ranch in 2002 as a place for boys, but he soon learned that he needed to include girls. Boys had a good place to go, but girls were “being dropped off at a local shelter” because they “had no equivalent.” This meant that siblings were often separated.

            French and the other people at Peppers Ranch decided to do something about the situation. They did extensive studies, and then decided to move to a family model in 2009. They offered “couples who were already licensed to do foster care in Oklahoma the opportunity to move to Peppers Ranch

There they could live in one of the newly built houses, paying only a couple of hundred dollars in rent and receiving a small stipend in addition to what the state offered for foster care, if they were willing to open their home to at least five foster children. Today, there are 16 homes on the property (with plans to build a few more over the next few years), all more than 3,000 square feet. The typical home has four bedrooms, a large living area and an industrial-size kitchen and pantry. The more recent homes even have hookups for two washers and dryers as well as larger garages in which families can park their super-size vans. The entire community has an annual budget of about $1.5 million, all from private donations. In addition to money, locals also donate furniture, clothing and other necessities. Hundreds of volunteers help maintain the grounds and run programs for the kids.

Set amid farmlands at the end of a dirt road which is prone to flooding, the community may seem inconvenient to some, but for the families at Peppers Ranch, it offers everything they need. The landscape feels a little sparse — not enough time has passed for many trees to mature on the land. Each family has a backyard, equipped with all the trampolines and play structures you would find in a typical suburban neighborhood. There is also a community basketball court and soccer field, a playground and pool complex, a pond where the kids can fish, and a barn with 17 horses. The horses, many of which are older and have been donated in their retirement, are used for equestrian therapy. They are gentle and the kids enjoy helping to care for them. Indeed, one of the Peppers Ranch mothers told me how excited her 6-year-old adoptive son was when he was given his very own pooper scooper for the horses. “They need my help,” he would tell his mother before running over to the barn. Each family also has to help with chores around the community — including feeding the horses over a weekend when the trainer is not around.

The logistics of being a foster parent, especially with multiple children in the home, can be overwhelming. Multiple therapy appointments a week, in addition to arranging visitation with biological parents, meetings with social workers and court dates can make even the most organized person’s head spin. But Peppers Ranch brings at least some of those services to the community. There is a learning center where children can receive after-school tutoring. The ranch also offers art therapy, dance therapy, a swim team and a variety of other extracurricular activities. Parents pay a small fee for these out of the stipends they receive.

        The community requires at least one parent to work full time. But the subsidized housing at         Peppers Ranch means one parent can stay home full time — and most of the time they do.             With so many kids, especially ones who have behavioral and emotional challenges, it is                 hard to outsource child care. But the state stipends do not allow a typical middle-class foster         family to give up one income. In families with older kids, mothers sometimes have part-time         jobs they can do from home during school hours. Mostly it’s the mothers at home but in at             least one case it’s the father who cares for the children while the mother works as a hospital         nurse….

But it’s not just the homes. It’s the community. Most of the families give their kids freedom to roam. Matt Terry says that’s one of the things he likes about Peppers Ranch, that it feels like a more old-fashioned neighborhood. It’s certainly true that it’s small enough for everyone to know everyone else. 

            Peppers Ranch was a group of people – a community – who saw a need for loving and secure homes for children and used their resources to meet the need. Some children come for a few days and end up staying for years, but all the children are cared for in loving families. Parents can strengthen their own family as well as help other children and strengthen their community and nation.