Janice Faye’s Ranch offers a multitude of services, including equine therapy for at-risk youth recovering from traumatic events and lately, they are looking for more volunteers.
The ranch is managed by Joy Canady, who named the ranch after her mother, Janice Faye, a victim of abuse. For the past few years, the ranch has operated as a nonprofit and has been helping youth ages 8-20 recovering from emotional, mental, physical abuse and other sources of trauma through something called equine therapy. While this may appear strange at first, according to Canady, horses and other equines are very special creatures, skilled at picking up on emotions.
“Often one of the first things we do, is introduce them to the horses,” said Canady. “If they are too anxious or nervous, the horses can actually pick up on that. They pick up on each person’s body language. Because of that, horses can help you heal from any type of trauma.”
According to Canady, the ranch receives the equines from a local rescue group called Believe Equine Rescue. As a result, each animal at the ranch has their own story of abuse or neglect. Prior to each therapy session, first each person partaking in the services must don a pair of boots due to insurance reasons. If they don’t have any, the ranch is equipped with many pairs of many sizes. Then prior to each session Canady or a volunteer walks them though a series of exercises to regulate stress levels.
“Usually I tell them to breathe in and ‘smell the flowers’ and breathe out ‘blow out the candles,’” said Canady.
Throughout each session, the clients are walked through a series of exercises designed to work on building communication skills, trust issues and setting boundaries. The ranch also works with the local department of social services to help children who have fallen on hard times while amplifying the effect of their services. In addition, sometimes parental involvement in the sessions is also encouraged.
“If we can get everyone in the family involved, everyone in the family can heal too,” said Canady. “Because of that, the family heals as a whole and have a better relationship.”
As the sessions go on, clients fill out an observation sheet. According to Canady, this sheet helps to ground the clients in the moment, teaching them to process things in the present and not linger on the past or future.
As of right now, the ranch only has a few volunteers. While each volunteer is utilized at the ranch, more volunteers could result in the ranch being able to do more therapy sessions per month. While the ranch can offer anywhere from 8-12 weeks of sessions for their clients, as of right now they can only do about three or four weeks.
“It takes at least two volunteers per every five kids for the therapy sessions,” said Canady. “We really appreciate the volunteers we have now, but as the ministry grows, so does our need for more volunteers.”
In addition, Canady stated that the ranch is also looking for grant writers to help the ranch apply for different grants. The ranch also has at least two teachers on staff who help do tutoring sessions at the ranch.
“The most important thing I want people to know about the ranch is that it’s people helping people,” she said. “It’s Jesus, people and horses helping people.”
Canady stated that the ministry operates by a quote from the movie “Seabiscuit”: “You don’t throw a whole life away just because they’re banged up a little.”
This quote is laced throughout everything Canady hopes to accomplished at the ranch.
“Oftentimes, kids come up to me and ask ‘Are we gonna do that exercise?’” said Canady. “Or their teachers will notice something different about them and say ‘You look to be doing better,’ and they will say ’ I went to Janice Faye’s Ranch.’”
To find out more about the ranch, visit www.janicefayesranch.org for more information. To sign up as a volunteer, visit the donate tab on the site and click volunteer opportunities.