Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches Residential Care Program
Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch, 1813 Cecil Webb Place, Live Oak, FL 32060
About
The Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches Residential Care Program includes activities such as swimming, baseball, volleyball, canoeing, and arts and crafts. Residential campuses follow a daily schedule that includes school, an on-campus job, chapel services, and recreation activities. “Ranchers” live in homes with a married couple, a “mom and pop,” who are devoted to encouraging the youth in their cottages.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
Founded in 1957, the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches operates three residential care campuses throughout the state of Florida. The program’s residential campuses operate under a four-pillar philosophy of Work, Study, Play and Pray, and counseling services, family engagement, and unconditional love and support from staff are part of the program. The Boys Ranch is a co-ed campus with the capacity to accommodate 82 boys and girls ages 3–20, and youth there attend school either on campus or in the local public school system in the Live Oak community. Each boy and girl at the Boys Ranch participates in a structured work program, and the Donald Ralph Cooke School on the Boys Ranch campus offers smaller class sizes, personalized learning plans, and access to alternative degree options. Youth Ranch Safety Harbor is home to sibling groups who need a place to grow up in a safe environment as a family and uses the same Work, Study, Play and Pray philosophy with a family model of a mom and pop in a cottage with the youth. Staff are trained in Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). The mission of the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches is to prevent delinquency and develop resilient, productive, and law-abiding citizens.
The Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches residential campuses are described as a nationally renown network of residential campuses, and their services are described as nationally recognized services to at-risk youth. The Don Genung Training and Resource Center provides Trauma-Informed Care services, including employee training, TBRI evidence-based trainings, and implementation strategies to help create trauma informed communities, and it aims to equip law enforcement, teachers, biological, adoptive, and foster parents, churches, and systems of care. Special events throughout Florida help raise funds to support the work of the organization. The Polk Sheriffs Charities Scholarship House is designed to help young adults transitioning out of state foster care or residential care programs learn independent living skills in a safe learning environment, and a residential life coach lives on that campus and serves as a mentor, helping with firsts of adulthood such as opening a bank account or purchasing a vehicle.
Last updated June 1, 2026.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
Founded in 1957, the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches operates three residential care campuses throughout the state of Florida. The program’s residential campuses operate under a four-pillar philosophy of Work, Study, Play and Pray, and counseling services, family engagement, and unconditional love and support from staff are part of the program. The Boys Ranch is a co-ed campus with the capacity to accommodate 82 boys and girls ages 3–20, and youth there attend school either on campus or in the local public school system in the Live Oak community. Each boy and girl at the Boys Ranch participates in a structured work program, and the Donald Ralph Cooke School on the Boys Ranch campus offers smaller class sizes, personalized learning plans, and access to alternative degree options. Youth Ranch Safety Harbor is home to sibling groups who need a place to grow up in a safe environment as a family and uses the same Work, Study, Play and Pray philosophy with a family model of a mom and pop in a cottage with the youth. Staff are trained in Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). The mission of the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches is to prevent delinquency and develop resilient, productive, and law-abiding citizens.
The Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches residential campuses are described as a nationally renown network of residential campuses, and their services are described as nationally recognized services to at-risk youth. The Don Genung Training and Resource Center provides Trauma-Informed Care services, including employee training, TBRI evidence-based trainings, and implementation strategies to help create trauma informed communities, and it aims to equip law enforcement, teachers, biological, adoptive, and foster parents, churches, and systems of care. Special events throughout Florida help raise funds to support the work of the organization. The Polk Sheriffs Charities Scholarship House is designed to help young adults transitioning out of state foster care or residential care programs learn independent living skills in a safe learning environment, and a residential life coach lives on that campus and serves as a mentor, helping with firsts of adulthood such as opening a bank account or purchasing a vehicle.
Last updated June 1, 2026.
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