The Ranch will soon be buzzing with the bottling of sweet alfalfa and clover honey. While we no longer own bees, and our kids don't gather the honey from the hives like they used to (our children in Minot are given the opportunity to help bottle it), honey continues to be a time-honored Ranch tradition. We invite churches and other organizations to hold Honey Sundays in the fall, and at the end of the year, send an 11-ounce bottle of honey to everyone who has given $10 or more throughout the year.…
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We had a young lady at the Ranch who really touched my heart. Whenever she would see me, she would yell, "Joy," and then scurry up to wherever I was. She'd give me a side hug and beam from ear to ear. Over time, I made it my mission to teach her to shake hands firmly, with eye contact. She was an excellent learner!…
Christ is at the center of all our work at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. God is our hero. To stay grounded in our work, Chaplain Rick Jones sends out a Ranch daily devotional email. All of the devotions are potent, and every once in a while, one makes me stop in my tracks.…
Last week, Jonathan Swenson (traveling actor, speaker, vocalist, and ordained minister) performed the show "Witnesses," by Curt Cloninger, for kids and staff at all three Ranch campuses in Minot, Bismarck, and Fargo.…
Being a teenager is tough. You're not a kid. You're not an adult. Much is expected of you, but you don't have a road map. Your body is changing. Your thoughts are changing. Nothing seems to stay in place.…
It is almost impossible to overstate the caliber of people I have the honor of working alongside. The level of compassion and decency they bring, meeting each child in the midst of their pain, is inspiring. One of those remarkable people is Gladys Skinner, who is a Residential Supervisor in Challenge Cottage, a Residential Child Caring Facility for girls 12-18 years old. Gladys has been at the Ranch for over four years and she simply exudes, "I got this," in her daily work.…
Teachers at Dakota Memorial School work hard to create trauma-sensitive classrooms that serve as safe spaces for kids at the Ranch to learn, grow, and find success.…
Walmart—Minot granted $2,000 to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, through the Community Grant Program. The funds received will be used to purchase new windows for the cottages on the Minot campus, replacing the windows that are original to the cottages.…
Last week, staff at Dakota Family Services and Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch had the chance to learn from Dr. Wayne Martinsen, MD, MSW, Medical Director at the Ranch, who traveled to all three campuses to present “The Harmony and Health of Happiness.”…
Recently, the reading in church was from Luke’s gospel where Jesus shared the parable of the Good Samaritan. When I reflect on this lesson, I think about how I can be a better neighbor to those around me. I think about times I could have let someone go ahead of me in line, stopped to listen, offered encouragement to someone, or engaged in conversation with the grocery store clerk or the person bagging my purchases. This time, I stopped to think about the definition of the neighbor referenced as "the one" in the phrase, “The one who had mercy on him."…
One of the most important things children discover in their time at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch is their "voice." Most of our trauma-affected kids have been told what they are, what they think, why they are failures, and why they will always be failures. Through hard work, determination, and a commitment to their treatment and education, they begin to discover their strengths. They begin to tell their own true stories, in their own voice.…
Sam’s Club—Bismarck granted $1,000 to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, through the Community Grant Program, to underwrite the cost of materials for the Gardening Program and Greenhouse on our Bismarck campus. The donated funds will be used to purchase various gardening tools, tables for the plants that are grown, topsoil, and seeds.…
Trinity Lutheran Church Foundation awarded $1,000 to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch for the purchase of guitars to be used on our Fargo campus.…
Great River Energy awarded $1,000 to Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch to underwrite the cost of new flooring for Dakota Memorial School (DMS), Bismarck. DMS, the on-campus school of Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, educates residents at the Ranch’s psychiatric treatment facility and day students (students who live at home but come to DMS for school). The flooring will create a quieter learning space for children who are highly sensitive to noise and other distractions.…
When it comes to overcoming challenges, Helen Keller (1880-1968) set the bar quite high. She was a lifelong learner, teacher, inspiration. She danced, laughed, wrote, and loved. She was deaf, blind, and had great difficulty speaking. And, she changed the world and the way we view the potential of those with special needs. Her teacher and best friend, Anne Sullivan, who was herself blind and parentless, instilled a sense of hope in the young Helen. Anne had a persistent hope that guided Helen into her future.…
All of us at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch are humbled and grateful each day. First, by the opportunity to serve the Lord by serving others. Second, that the “others” we serve are precious children on a journey of hope and healing to become their best selves. Third, that so many people, like you, support our work. The attitude of gratitude we carry into each day is more than a clever rhyme, it is a worldview based on the honor we feel. We try to find every way possible to share our thankfulness with everyone.…
If you have had kids, or been around kids, you know that trips to urgent care or the emergency room are part of “the deal.” With my own children, we had the requisite ear infections, occasional stitches from a variety of boo-boos, and a very exciting dislocated thumb that happened on the school playground. As they got older, we moved onto sports injuries. Ranch kids are kids. They have these experiences, too. And sometimes, an acute psychiatric issue may lead to a hospital visit.…
A few weeks ago I was going through our cafeteria line for lunch on campus when there was a commotion at the other end of the dining center. Something had agitated one of our children, a young boy, and he threw his lunch tray on the floor. It hit with such force that the unbreakable plastic dish shattered and, of course, milk flew everywhere. Staff quickly helped the young man leave the environment and helped him use some of his coping and calming skills. In a few minutes, he was able to re-set his emotions and finish lunch.…
Now, imagine what it's like to be a kid in residential treatment during the summer. All their freewheeling plans are put aside as they work towards their treatment goals. Life at home—including family reunions, outings with friends, and days at the pool—moves on without them. Therapy and psychiatric care continue just as intensely over the summer months as during the school year.…
Dakota Family Services is a group of compassionate, practiced experts providing trauma-informed care for children, adolescents, and adults with substance abuse, psychiatric, and behavior issues. Our staff are truly committed to their work and the care of children, adolescents, and adults with a variety of behavioral health issues. For more information, go to http://dakotafamilyservices.org/…
I truly love the Ranch kids. They surprise me every day with their courage, resilience, desire to be their best selves. This morning as I walked through the dining room at breakfast time, several of the girls stopped me to teach them how to do the Star Trek “live long and prosper” sign with my hands. Much giggling and goofing later, we settled for them making the peace sign. For many of the children, their journey also includes their first real consideration of God and His role in their healing. Tara, whose story follows, was a child who opened her heart to the work of treatment and the word of the Lord. These children are remarkable.…
During a recent lecture, Dr. Wayne Martinsen, Medical Director and psychiatrist at Dakota Family Services, clearly explained the science and statistics of different types of dementia. For the professionals in attendance, he shared new research on the medications that enhance brain functioning, and the limitations of those medications, new findings on the prevalence of Traumatic Brain Injury as a contributor to dementia, and much more. The takeaways, for my own life and for those I love, were in the powerful information he provided about building protective factors against dementia. We can establish behaviors (for ourselves and for the youngest of our Ranch kids) that can delay or impact the effects. Diet, exercise, brain-stimulating activities, sauna, caffeine – each in appropriate doses – have great research-based impacts on the prevalence of the disease. It was fascinating.…
If you took away my map and my compass, I wouldn’t be able to find my way out of a paper bag, let alone navigate the places we hunt; so I was enthralled by the stories in the book. The author’s premise is that simply looking at the details others miss enables a person to successfully navigate even the most desolate terrain. No doubt it was pretty amazing, even awe-inspiring stuff. But, I still believe if you threw ME into the middle of the wilderness to find my way without a map or a compass, you would be asking the impossible!…
Ranch Wellness Coordinators help kids build healthy habits they can take with them after they leave the Ranch.…
When Adam, a Dakota Memorial School (DMS) day student, took his first art class a couple of years ago, he fell in love with photography.…