For more than 50 years, the disadvantaged children under the guardianship of Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch suffered severe and ongoing physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The Child-Friendly Faith Project has been advocating for Boys Ranch survivors. Please help us support them in their efforts to build community and find healing.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch is a children’s residential facility begun in 1939 by Cal Farley, a professional wrestler and tire salesman who had no training in child development. Since then, the well-endowed, privately funded institution, located outside Amarillo, Texas, has long sought donations from the public by marketing itself as a place that meets children’s needs.
But that was a lie. In reality, over a period of more than 50 years, children suffered ongoing, systemic, and severe physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. To make matters worse, in 2017, Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch dedicated a dorm building to a man who has been accused of having brutally abused children and then oversaw an abusive system as superintendent for many years until he retired in 1997.
The truth came out in a 2017 article published in The Guardian. Soon after the news broke, Boys Ranch CEO Dan Adams admitted that the abuses had, indeed, taken place and offered a weak apology.
It’s unclear how many children have been victimized at Boys Ranch. According to its website, about 12,000 young people have lived at the campus in its 78-year history. A Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch Survivors Facebook group currently has 90 members. The CFFP has heard from men and women who say they were abused in recent years.
We have served in a support role to survivors. We helped them start a Facebook group that currently has nearly 100 members. We organized and funded a reunion in 2018 where dozens of survivors and loved ones gathered in Amarillo to share stories and find community.
Click below to watch a video that summarizes our time at the reunion!
Boys Ranch survivors have set up a committee whose mission is to find solutions to help those who are struggling with critical daily life needs. Many suffer from psychological issues and financial stresses, largely due to the abuse they experienced while growing up at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch.
The CFFP is committed to continuing to support and empower survivors by advising this committee and helping them to raise funds. We would be grateful for any donations you can give. Your donations are tax-deductible. When you give, please use the code BRSURVIVORS which will restrict your donation to helping the Survivors of Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch.
Thank you!
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You may also send a check to: Child-Friendly Faith Project, P.O. Box 162053 Altamonte Springs, FL 32714.
Please write on your check “BRSURVIVORS.” Thank you!