Heartland Boys Ranch Academy

6065 Manitou Road – Nebo, KY 42441

Christian residential program and ranch for troubled boys ages 12-17, located in Northwestern Kentucky

REGIONS: Central States, East Coast, Midwest, South Central

Heartland Boys Academy is a structured, Christian residential program for boys aged 12-17. We are located in Western Kentucky. Our relationally-oriented but highly disciplined program is specifically designed to help boys who are struggling with difficult life challenges or expulsion from a public or private school.

Heartland Boys Academy uses an adventure-filled program while ensuring that the boys earn elevated levels of trust, responsibility, authority, and privilege. Boys are built up in their confidence and thoughtfulness, allowing them to successfully return to home life, college, vocational training, the military, or employment. We strongly push them toward a vocation or to move toward more training once they leave Heartland Boys Academy, which gives them the reason to keep a straight head and their eye on the target for their future, so they don’t fall back into old ways of thinking and acting.

Heartland Boys Academy is a positive learning environment that offers the benefits of talented staff dedicated to helping young men gain the tools needed for success. The program integrates educational, spiritual, and personal growth curricula with vocational skill-building activities, athletics, and community service learning projects. This integration, combined with a relationship-focused approach, provides full student engagement and results in demonstrated success. Staff and volunteers work with each student, creating an individualized development plan that outlines objectives and goals for the student’s success.

We work best with boys with anger and related behavioral issues. Most of the boys in our care are those diagnosed with RAD, ADD, ADHD, or are self-destructive. Many of the boys that we work with were adopted — referred here for our help and care from adoptive parents. We also work with boys who have gotten into trouble with the law but clearly have a good heart and just need a new start and direction in life. For the safety of the staff and other boys, we do not accept violent offenders, arsons, sexual offenders, suicidal boys, or boys with severe psychological issues requiring regular psychiatric care.

We work under the simple philosophy of giving the kids something they don’t want to lose. Whether that be the hope for an exciting future, a trade that they love, or a fresh new start in life, boys leave here with a new purpose and desire to be responsible men of God.

Activities

Heartland Boys Academy teaches boys how to enjoy good, clean manly fun. The boys at Heartland Boys Academy frequently go offsite for camping, hiking, spelunking, cave exploring, fishing, boating, and hunting. Some of the boys participate in sports in the local schools in our area.

The Heartland Boys Academy and Christian Academy is a place of healing and hope. We have seen hundreds of at-risk and struggling teens transformed into hard-working, respectable young adults. We help restore boys to their families; healthy, confident, and spiritually and academically on track.

Education

At Heartland Boys Academy, we value education and academics as being an integral and necessary part of the lives of our students. We also realize that many of our students may have unresolved life questions that may be obstacles to conventional learning methods.

While we place an important emphasis on counseling and relationships, we understand that academics are also a critical part of the boy’s future. Our program is designed to help get our students from “I can’t learn” to “I can’t wait to learn.” We provide unique educational opportunities including credit retrieval for students that have gotten behind in school.

When a young man arrives at Heartland, we gauge the student’s ability to tolerate standard learning methods. Each and every student is provided with an Individualized Student Success Plan while simultaneously the student’s transcripts and previous school records are used to build a plan for which classes are needed for completion of the ultimate academic goal of obtaining a high school diploma.

Heartland Boys Academy uses an online curriculum, allowing for students of all academic levels to be able to enter classes and work at their own pace. Teachers and instructors are available in the classroom to assist with any questions or technical help with the computers.

Heartland is a Department of Education registered non-public school. Our teachers assist students in two available self-paced Christian curriculums (Accelerated Christian Education and Edgenuity), offering tutorial help when needed. A high school diploma is awarded upon graduation and assistance in obtaining ACT and SAT testing in the local schools.