UPDATE

As you know, the economic downturn caused us to temporarily close five of our residential cottages last year. Youth Ranches staff at all levels began an increased effort to find ways we could reopen these cottages so children would not have to be turned down when they needed our programs.

We have already reopened a cottage at the Youth Villa in Bartow and the Youth Ranch – Bradenton/Sarasota through contracts with local Community Based Care Lead Agencies. These beds will be for children in the foster care system and will have a focus on preparing them for independent living when they age out of the foster care system.

Our Champions for Children Campaign has brought in $247,000 and a donor from Naples has generously presented a check for another $200,000 to open a cottage. This will allow us to reopen the closed unit of two cottages at the Boys Ranch. Our goal will be to start admitting boys from the waiting list by February 28.

We were fortunate to have received another gift of $150,000 towards the opening of the cottage at Safety Harbor.  At the recent Florida Sheriffs Association Winter Conference, Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton asked the Sheriffs of Florida to help raise the remaining $50,000 to open the cottage.  Representatives from companies around the state of Florida were also at the conference and several of them stepped forward with the Sheriffs to raise over $60,000.  With these funds we intend to have the cottage at Safety Harbor open by the end of March.

Although there is no guarantee that adequate funding will be there after this runs out, we have made the decision to move forward in faith, knowing we have enough for at least 12 months. During those 12 months we will continue to work toward securing ongoing funding for all cottages.

It is certainly not news to anyone that our nation is in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The collapse of banks and financial institutions, decline in the stock market and property values, and loss of over 8 million jobs have put a severe strain on everyone. Although there have been some hopeful signs on the horizon, it looks like we are facing a long time recovery period.

The Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches entered this recession in excellent financial shape. We were debt free and had diligently put money into savings during the good years when charitable giving was strong. Our conservative financial policies had allowed us to increase the number of children we were serving while keeping our expenses as low as possible.

As our donors began to suffer the effects of poor earnings on their investments and the fear which accompanied the economic crisis, the flow of charitable gifts to the Youth Ranches began to decline. During the past three years, gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations and special events have all seen major reductions. Along with this, we have also experienced a sharp decline in the number and value of gifts left to the Youth Ranches through our donor’s estate plans.

Due to the fact we had built up some savings over the years, we were able to use these reserves to fill the gap between our revenue and expenses. This enabled us to keep all of our cottages open and other services to kids and families at full level. We felt this was important since the need for our services had increased dramatically as the economy worsened.

In the past three years, we have used two-thirds of our savings and have realized these will be depleted soon if we do not make significant reductions in our expenses. We have also cut back expenses in many ways including all of our Youth Ranches employees (except cottage parents) taking a day off without pay each month since February of 2009.

In our projections for next fiscal year’s budget which will begin October 1, we are projecting a $2.2 million deficit between revenue and expenses. A special meeting of our Board of Directors was held to grapple with this problem and some agonizing decisions were made to reduce staff and services to youth and families. These reductions will include closing five of our residential cottages, eliminating over 30 staff positions and putting a number of additional cuts in place to reduce the deficit and stretch our reserves for a longer period of time.

This temporary closing of five cottages includes two at the Boys Ranch in Live Oak and one each at our programs in Bradenton/Sarasota, Safety Harbor and Bartow. The impact of this will be 50 less beds available for boys and girls at a time when we have youngsters already waiting for our help. Parents have been contacted and informed it may be six months or longer before a bed is available for their child.

During the past few months, I have spoken to a number of our donors at various events around the state. The most common question I have heard is “What does it cost to keep a cottage open for a year?” That number is around $200,000 which covers the cost of staff, food, utilities, clothing and the many other expenses needed to care for and educate ten boys or girls. There is no doubt that it is expensive to provide round the clock care, which includes; counseling, education and training for young people but we have always believed it is better to spend this when they are young rather than to spend it in the criminal justice system when they get older.

Our immediate goal is to provide high quality care and services to as many boys and girls as our finances allow. The next goal is to figure out a way to get those closed cottages open again so we can serve the 50 children who will not have this opportunity to get their lives going in the right direction without our help.

We have an incredibly faithful donor family who have stuck with us in good times and bad. I know each of you has been affected by this recession and have done what you can to help. For that, I am grateful. For the past few months I have been overwhelmed with the idea of trying to raise the $2 million needed to balance the budget.

On an early morning drive across the state, I began to think that if many people all made an effort, we could accomplish great things. $2 million is only 2,000 people giving $1,000 over and above what they normally would give. It is 4,000 people giving $500 or 8,000 people giving $250. There are 18 million people in the state of Florida and I believe there are enough who care deeply about children and the work the Youth Ranches has done for the past 53 years to keep these cottages open and say “Yes” rather than “No” to these children waiting for a place to live.

In closing, I would ask each of you to consider an additional gift to the Youth Ranches above and beyond what you would normally give. As additional funding comes in, we will reopen closed cottages and begin once again saying “Yes” to children who need a home.

Thank You and God Bless,
Roger Bouchard

PS: Please mark any gifts directed toward this effort as “Champion for Children Campaign” so your donation can be directed to the reopening of cottages and serving at least 50 more children next year.