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Quality Over Quantity

The HOPE Farm dream began in the hearts of the two founders, Gary Randle (retired Fort Worth Police Department and former TCU basketball player) and Noble Crawford (Veteran of the United States Air Force and Retired Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigator).

As defenders of the law, they recognized an ongoing tragedy repeating itself within the African-American community: the tragedy of the African-American male who gave up his family for a life of crime and incarceration.

The tragedy was and continues to be real and Gary and Noble wanted to become a part of the solution.

The initial call to create HOPE Farm that Gary and Noble received, centered on boys who had been abandoned by their fathers — which affected these boys and their moms in devastating ways. HOPE Farm believes that in keeping our mission specific to creating a program for fatherless boys, that we will have the largest impact on our community. Our investment is about quality and our mission is specific, which makes our work extremely important and powerful.

Studies about fatherless children are breathtaking and the findings below make HOPE Farm’s call to action vital. Children from homes without fathers account for:

• 63% of youth suicides (US Dept. of Health and Human Services)
• 90% of homeless and runaway children (US Dept. of Health and Human Services)
• 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders (Center for Disease Control)
• 80% of the rapists motivated with displaced anger (Criminal Justice and Behavior)
• 70% of all juveniles in state-operated institutions (US Dept. of Criminal Justice)
• 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers (Rainbows for All God’s Children)
• 71% of all high school dropouts (National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools)
• 85% of all youth sitting in Texas prisons (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

HOPE Farm believes that we are in a real crisis that impacts every community in tragic ways. HOPE Farm believes that without a direct plan to find these fatherless boys who are searching for a male role model that we will all suffer. Gary Randle argues that as a society, we will pay one way or another—either now to prepare these boys for a bright future, or later, to keep them locked away so that they do not negatively impact our future.

HOPE Farm is a leadership development program, guiding at-risk boys to become Christ-centered men of integrity. Our two campuses in Fort Worth, Texas, provide a variety of activities for inner city boys which nourish their spirit, mind, and body. We work daily with each child’s mother/caretaker and teachers in order to maintain accountability and consistency. Recognizing the importance of a collective effort, HOPE Farm has a partnership parenting curriculum known as the Mother’s Resource Initiative. It assists the parents of HOPE Farm boys with spiritual development, inspirational encouragement, and provides structural tools to help them partner with HOPE Farm.

By keeping our numbers small, we are able to pour our work into the whole child and train him to be a leader and to be a solution to the ongoing problem we face in our African-American community.

Jesus began with 12 disciples. He invested in this small number and taught these men to be leaders. After the resurrection in Matthew 28:19-20, he directed (then 11 disciples) them to:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

HOPE Farm believes that emphasizing the quality of care to a small number will make the biggest difference in the long term.

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