Eagle Ranch will celebrate its 35th year in 2020 with construction of a new facility and an array of new services, the founder and executive director of the organization announced Tuesday.
Eddie Staub said Eagle Ranch will build a 10,000-square-foot building on its campus to house community counseling services, support services for nonprofits that serve families and children and retreat space to support parents and marriages.
“Community need has always driven the vision of Eagle Ranch,” Staub said. “We will come alongside the counseling community in our region to offer additional support.”
Staub made the announcement Tuesday to members of the Gainesville Kiwanis Club, the same club where 38 years ago he announced his initial vision for Eagle Ranch.
The new building, to be called the Wings Center, will be built next door to Eagle Ranch’s residential campus on Union Church Road in Hall County. The organization bought the 45-acre site in 2016. Staub said the new acreage completes Eagle Ranch’s footprint and gives it 315 total acres.
The counseling services that will be offered will allow Eagle Ranch to serve more children and their parents. Eagle Ranch is one of the Southeast’s largest residential children’s programs, but Staub said the residential aspect isn’t always the best fit for every family.
“Family-focused outpatient services may be best,” Staub said, adding the Wings Center will have 12 therapists.
In addition to new out-patient services, the therapists will also offer continued care for families after a child returns home. It will also offer out-patient individual and marriage counseling.
“When kids leave Eagle Ranch, there’s often a need for continuing care,” Staub said. “This will be a powerful continuation of what we do.”
Eagle Ranch’s residential program can serve 42 boys and 24 girls.
The Wings Center will also provide a home to the organization’s Wings Initiative, started in 1996 as a way to help other children’s programs through a sharing of best practices. The Wings Center will provide working space, support services and resources for those other programs.
“We like to say we want to help people who help people,” Staub said. “We don’t think we’re a panacea, but we want to be part of the community and a part of the solution.”
Staub said the Wings Center will have space for parent and marriage retreats that will reinforce and expand Eagle Ranch’s missions to make life better for children and families.
The Wings Center will be named for James W. Webb, a member of the Eagle Ranch board of directors for more than 30 years.
“Jim Webb was a friend, mentor and trusted counselor,” Staub said. “We are honored to pay tribute to Jim and his family through the naming of this facility that will expand our reach through North Georgia, Metro Atlanta and beyond.”
Funding for the James W. Webb Wings Center and its start-up costs will be part of the Eagle Ranch’s 35th anniversary capital campaign. Plans are to break ground in in mid 2020 with counseling services to start the following year.
