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Who we are
Cal Farley’s is a leader in residential childcare services. For over 80 years, we’ve worked to meet the needs of children and families — at no cost to the people we serve, thanks to the continued generosity of our supporters, and without seeking state or federal funds to support our work.
Cal Farley’s Mission
Cal Farley’s provides professional programs and services in a Christ-centered atmosphere to strengthen families and support the overall development of children.
Our Philosophies
Strengths-Based Approach
How you approach a challenge has a great deal to do with how successful you’ll be at solving it. At Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, we don’t see the young people who come to us as problems in need of a solution. Instead, we approach them from a completely different perspective.
We see their strengths.
Many youth Boys Ranch serves come from difficult backgrounds that forced them to develop methods to cope with their environments. These coping mechanisms allow a child to get through challenging circumstances, but can create obstacles in other areas of their life. Boys Ranch caring professionals identify areas of a child’s life that are working well for them, and use those areas as a foundation on which to rebuild a healthy, well-adjusted child.
For example, consider a child who’s struggling in school, but who excels in an activity outside of class. A common approach might be to limit his involvement in that activity until his grades improve. And, while there might be times when that’s appropriate, Boys Ranch approach is to examine the child’s area of strength, called “islands of competence”, and determine if there’s something there the child can apply to improve his performance in the area where he is struggling.
Boys Ranch always seeks to understand why a child behaves as he does. After all, our purpose isn’t to punish poor behavior or lackluster performance. Instead, Boys Ranch wants to equip the child to choose better behaviors or increase his performance through his own choices.
Boys Ranch sees the promise in every child we serve, and we’re committed to helping them achieve it.
Model of Leadership & Service
Our Model of Leadership and Service represents six universal needs:
SAFETY ● POWER ● PURPOSE ● BELONGING ● ACHIEVEMENT ● ADVENTURE
We believe when these six areas of need are met, individuals are able to reach their fullest potential. Relationships that are unconditional and restorative are key to meeting these needs.
We believe challenging behavior stems from one or more of these needs not being met – or being met inappropriately.
Our approach moves us from the certainty that behavior is simple willful defiance to being curious as to what need is behind the behavior.
Informed Care
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch is an NMT™ Phase II Certified Site. NMT™ was developed by Dr. Bruce Perry and the Child Trauma Academy as a clinical problem solving tool – looking at a child’s relationships, experiences, and neurodevelopment. This framework helps us to see how both nature and nurture have impacted a child from conception forward and guides our interventions sequentially for maximum effectiveness.
Boys Ranch utilizes information from the Dr. Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Care at Texas Christian University (TCU). She and Dr. David Cross created Trust Based Relational Intervention, which focuses on interventions for children from hard places.
Visit Boys Ranch
Guests are welcome at Cal Farley’s historic Boys Ranch campus. We are located at the site of Old Tascosa, a pioneer town where the likes of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett walked its dusty streets.
Since 1939, though, it has served a much different purpose. On land once known for gun fights and barroom brawls, Cal Farley’s residents learn the value of integrity, perseverance and faith in God.
All visits begin at Boys Ranch Headquarters, where guests must first check in. The safety of our residents is our first priority, so guests 18 and older will be asked to present their driver’s license or photo ID.
TOUR HOURS
Monday to Friday
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tour reservations are requested, but not required.
Tour Highlights
Cal farley and his legacy
In the late 1930s, Cal Farley was playing semiprofessional baseball by day and wrestling by night in Amarillo, Texas. Mr. Farley, a World War I veteran with an engaging personality, was a fan favorite at the ballpark, where he would deliberately hit foul balls over the fence to children gathered there, knowing they could exchange these balls for a free ticket to the game. Mr. Farley realized some of these children were hanging around the ballpark when they should have been in school, and he soon found many of them came from broken homes where guidance, supervision and love often were missing.
Mr. Farley began looking for ways to help these children and, in the fall of 1938, Texas Panhandle rancher Julian Bivins agreed to support the cause. Bivins donated about 120 acres of land 36 miles northwest of Amarillo. The following March, Mr. Farley established his boys ranch at the site, which long before had been home to Tascosa, a raucous pioneer town. On land that once was known for gun fights and barroom brawls, Boys Ranch residents learned the value of integrity and an honest day’s work.
The Boys Ranch population quickly grew and, in 1944, Mr. Farley sought to bolster the boys’ social education by hosting a rodeo. About one hundred people showed up, but the idea took root. Now, thousands attend the annual Boys Ranch Rodeo.
Boys Ranch programs expanded to include girls. Yet still, we hold true to the values set over seven decades and prepare young people to become responsible citizens
Julian Bivins Museum
Located in the original Tascosa courthouse serving Oldham County, the Julian Bivins Museum contains historical artifacts from Boys Ranch and Old Tascosa.
Tascosa was known as the “Cowboy Capital of the Plains” and was the rowdy home of settlers, cowboys, cattle thieves and lawmen.
The area provides an easy point to cross the Canadian River and an abundant source of drinking water from Atascosa Creek. This made Tascosa an ideal place for settlement first by Native Americans, then Spanish Pastores, and later large cattle ranches.
Tascosa was one of the first established towns in the Texas Panhandle region. The courthouse, built in 1884, served up to twelve counties.
Bypassed by the railroad, Tascosa fell from prominence and became a shadow of its once raucous self, only to be reimagined as a home for at risk children. In the early days of Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch the courthouse served as a home for the first nine boys to live at the Ranch.
Cal farley and his legacy
In the late 1930s, Cal Farley was playing semiprofessional baseball by day and wrestling by night in Amarillo, Texas. Mr. Farley, a World War I veteran with an engaging personality, was a fan favorite at the ballpark, where he would deliberately hit foul balls over the fence to children gathered there, knowing they could exchange these balls for a free ticket to the game. Mr. Farley realized some of these children were hanging around the ballpark when they should have been in school, and he soon found many of them came from broken homes where guidance, supervision and love often were missing.
Mr. Farley began looking for ways to help these children and, in the fall of 1938, Texas Panhandle rancher Julian Bivins agreed to support the cause. Bivins donated about 120 acres of land 36 miles northwest of Amarillo. The following March, Mr. Farley established his boys ranch at the site, which long before had been home to Tascosa, a raucous pioneer town. On land that once was known for gun fights and barroom brawls, Boys Ranch residents learned the value of integrity and an honest day’s work.
The Boys Ranch population quickly grew and, in 1944, Mr. Farley sought to bolster the boys’ social education by hosting a rodeo. About one hundred people showed up, but the idea took root. Now, thousands attend the annual Boys Ranch Rodeo.
Boys Ranch programs expanded to include girls. Yet still, we hold true to the values set over seven decades and prepare young people to become responsible citizens
Julian Bivins Museum
Located in the original Tascosa courthouse serving Oldham County, the Julian Bivins Museum contains historical artifacts from Boys Ranch and Old Tascosa.
Tascosa was known as the “Cowboy Capital of the Plains” and was the rowdy home of settlers, cowboys, cattle thieves and lawmen.
The area provides an easy point to cross the Canadian River and an abundant source of drinking water from Atascosa Creek. This made Tascosa an ideal place for settlement first by Native Americans, then Spanish Pastores, and later large cattle ranches.
Tascosa was one of the first established towns in the Texas Panhandle region. The courthouse, built in 1884, served up to twelve counties.
Bypassed by the railroad, Tascosa fell from prominence and became a shadow of its once raucous self, only to be reimagined as a home for at risk children. In the early days of Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch the courthouse served as a home for the first nine boys to live at the Ranch.
Cal Farley's Leadership
Cal Farley’s is a leader in residential childcare services. For over 80 years, we’ve worked to meet the needs of children and families — at no cost to the people we serve, thanks to the continued generosity of our supporters, and without seeking state or federal funds to support our work.
Michelle Maikoetter
Chief Program Officer
Chief Program Officer
By telephone:
800-687-3722
806-372-2341
Visit or mail our Amarillo office:
600 S.W. 11th Ave.
Amarillo, TX 79101-3228
By fax:
806-372-6638
By e-mail:
info@CalFarley.org
If you are interested in visiting with an Intake Specialist concerning possible placement of a child, please call:
800-657-7124 · 806-372-2341