Welcome To
Mount Carmel Youth Ranch

Our troubled teen at-risk behavior improvement program helps boys who display difficulty in these areas:

Mount Carmel Youth Ranch and Wilderness Interventions (MTC) works with young men just like your son. We specialize in a unique experiential therapeutic approach that creates steady behavior improvement. This will give you and your son the tools to regain the dignity and bond that you are missing in your relationship. We understand that you may feel like your son has lost his way and that he has no clear direction in his life. You have watched him change before your eyes to deviant behavior. He may be doing poorly in school, being disrespectful to adults and he is just not the same child that you raised. We know your son is a good person; we want to help redirect him towards the path he was meant for.

Mount Carmel Youth Ranch offers two programs that will enable you and your son to reconnect. This troubled teen program is unique in that it is a real working cattle ranch. What does that mean? It means that when your son first arrives he will enter the Mount Carmel Wilderness Intervention Program, he will have a adjustment period in order to get used to the “cowboy” way of life. A cowboy learns responsibility and integrity through a quieter self-fulfilling environment. “How are we going to change your son in this environment?” Your son will look the “part”. He will lose the dress and appearance of the culture that seduced him into becoming a "teen at-risk". He will be given the opportunity to learn how to take care of himself and look to the needs of ranch animals. He will be taught how to clean his living quarters, cook, feed ranch animals, along with other ranch duties that are common to every day cowboy living. He will simply be living a cowboy’s life. Once he has set aside those desires that he came with he will be moved to the long term program. During this process you will be able to talk with staff on a regular basis but your son will become acquainted with letter writing skills to you, and you to them.

Through our “paternal teachings” and our unique “Real Life Therapy” the young man’s mind and heart are renewed and unfolded as God created him. We employ this Catholic Christ Centered philosophy in all of our day to day activities in this program. We are a family; a group of people involved in the total sharing of our lives. We know that change happens as a result of meaningful sharing and honest relationships. We also know that growth in the areas of honesty, trust, moral integrity, improved relationships, responsibility and stress management will reduce your son’s dependence on unmanageable behavior, thus increasing your son’s ability to find joy, purpose and fulfillment in his life.

After you son completes the Wilderness short term program, you may be thinking that your son is ready to come home. We understand this longing to have your son rejoin the family. We have found after our seventeen years of experience working with youth at-risk that our 18 month program effects the most lasting and significant opportunity for real change. You as a family, will need to evaluate and decide whether to leave your son in the Mount Carmel Youth Ranch Long Term Program or to take him home. MTC offers you and your son a time of reconciliation. We do this by teaching your son more responsibilities through ranch activities. He will be able to experience a lifestyle that allows him to succeed in very important avenues of life skills development which include; grade level education, cattle management, farming, heavy equipment operation, horse riding and care, carpentry, mechanics, welding, and small animal care. These vocational skills give your son an overwhelming opportunity to succeed in any life endeavor.

We invite you to join with our MTC family and other families who have been where you are now and have successfully completed our program and have sons who have a bright and promising future. Click here to read parent testimonials