Dogs may well claim the title of man’s best friend, but horses are no slouches when it comes to companionship, recreation, and personal growth. In fact, the team at Shepherd Youth Ranch (SYR) believes that horses have a unique capacity to provide therapeutic support to children and teens grappling with a variety of physical, mental, and emotional challenges. Their mission of providing hope and restoration captured the hearts of our Design + Planning team, who worked with SYR and Leadership Raleigh to develop a conceptual master plan for expanding their campus to serve more youth in need.
Shepherd Youth Ranch today
SYR occupies 42 acres in Creedmoor, NC, about 30 minutes south of Oxford and just shy of an hour north of Raleigh. It provides equine-assisted therapeutic services to young people with physical and mental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, as well as those who have experienced trauma arising from abuse, neglect, and abandonment. More recently, they have extended their programming to include postpartum mothers and military veterans.
In addition to a stable housing eleven horses and three mini horses, the ranch features an outdoor horseback riding rink, a smaller manicured pasture, and a larger natural pasture.
The ranch is accessed from Brassfield Road via a long gravel road that runs to the rear of the property. The entrance is marked by a modest handmade sign designed to look like the hurdles used in horse races and show jumping competitions.
These facilities have served the team faithfully since 2017, when they relocated to Creedmoor from Franklinton, NC. Since their founding in 2004 in Charlotte, they have provided more than 30,000 hours of free services to children, their families, and veterans.
SYR meets Leadership Raleigh
Like many fruitful partnerships, the relationship between SYR and Leadership Raleigh began through mutual connections.
Travis Edmonds, brother of SYR founder and president Ashley Boswell, was working for Williams Realty and Building Co. (WRBCO), while Rebekah Laney was working for kasper architects + associates (ka+), an architectural consulting firm that empowers its staff to be conduits for good through weekly volunteer hours. Travis and Rebekah met when ka+ hired WRBCO as the general contractor for several jobs; they connected over drinks, and when Rebekah shared her background in non-profit fundraising, Travis shared SYR’s story.
In 2023, Rebekah’s team at ka+ completed their first service project at SYR, building fencing and a ring for the mini ponies. Rebekah and Ashley stayed in touch after the project was finished.
Meanwhile, the founder of ka+, Erik Kasper, was involved in Leadership Jacksonville at the time. Seeing Rebekah’s passion for service, he encouraged her to apply for Leadership Raleigh.
Leadership Raleigh nurtures Triangle-area business, non-profit, and community leaders by connecting them to their professional peers. It provides insights into the challenges faced by the community and creates opportunities to overcome those challenges through strategic and creative collaborations.
The capstone of the Leadership Raleigh program is a community service project. Working in small groups, participants are tasked with identifying a non-profit organization making a significant positive impact on the community, and then developing a project to benefit this organization and uplift the community.
Rebekah was accepted to Leadership Raleigh’s Class 49, where she joined a diverse group of Triangle professionals:
- Jacob Hoggard, LeChase Construction
- Nicole Flynn, Catering Works
- Emily Williams, Truist
- Michael Lewis, Wake Tech
- Brandon Massengil, Womble Bond Dickinson
- Amber Bodette, Hylant
- Stacey Dry, American Real Estate Partners
When Rebekah’s Leadership Raleigh group indicated they wanted to do hands-on work that benefited either children or veterans for their capstone project, the choice for project partner was obvious: Shepherd Youth Ranch.
A simple gravel path leads to WithersRavenel
For her part, ranch owner Ashley Boswell was thrilled to be approached by the Leadership Raleigh group. She had recently returned from a retreat in California, and she had already been thinking about ways to take the next step in the ranch’s journey.
Ashley’s goal was a modest one: lay down a gravel walking path with benches so that guests and their families could take meditative walks in nature. In the future, the path could be enhanced with “meditation stations,” art installations, and even audio accompaniment.
Because the Leadership Raleigh group was made up of primarily education and finance professionals, with only two AEC members, they knew that designing a walking path was reaching a bit beyond their expertise. There was no question that that could put in the sweat equity, but they realized they didn’t want to build something that might easily wash away in a bad storm or get overgrown in a few years’ time due to poor planning.
That’s when Rebekah reached out to our own Jed Byrne, a Leadership Raleigh graduate, who put her in touch with Laura Moore and Daniel Whatley in our Design + Planning team.
Three organizations, one purposeful vision
Laura and Daniel were only too happy to lend their support to the project. They began by conducting a site visit, during which they confirmed Leadership Raleigh’s suspicions about the initial plan: simply spreading gravel wouldn’t hold up well over time, and adequate drainage would definitely be an issue, particularly where the trail crossed a creek. Or in Laura’s words: “Without the right infrastructure, and after the first big rain, nobody was going to be pleased.”
As a result, Laura suggested a modified trail location with a small wooden pedestrian bridge over the creek to be more resilient in the face of weather and use.
The more Laura and Daniel worked with Leadership Raleigh and SYR, however, the more it became clear that the biggest obstacle to the project’s success wasn’t the design, it was financing. The expanded project scope involved digging out 6–10 inches of soil from a 300-foot section and adding almost 100 tons of fill material, a task that could not be completed without heavy machinery. While other Leadership Raleigh groups were tackling projects that could be completed in a weekend or two with a few thousand dollars in donations, Rebekah’s team found themselves needing a way to raise $10,000 in equipment, material, and site furniture.
Laura offered Leadership Raleigh and SYR an unconventional solution: a conceptual master plan not just for the walking path, but for multiple large-scale improvements to the ranch. As she explained, the path alone might not attract much attention from potential donors. But a plan for new amenities—amenities that would significantly expand how SYR could serve impacted youth in central North Carolina—might be just the thing to capture people’s imaginations and spark excitement in the project.
The master plan would show potential donors how contributing to the path project today is really a long-term investment in the larger goals of the ranch and in the wellbeing of Triangle children and teens in need and their families. It could also open the door to seeking funding from grant agencies and corporate sponsorships.
Investment in the amenities described in the master plan could also have a snowball effect, creating opportunities to rent out portions of the ranch to other groups and creating an income stream that would enable Ashley to reinvest in the ranch’s mission.
Down to brass tacks: features of the conceptual master plan
In consultation with Ashley and the staff at SYR, WithersRavenel’s Design + Planning team developed a conceptual master plan that focuses on developing four main areas of the ranch in addition to the walking path:
- Entrance – To draw attention to the entrance to SYR, the team recommended adding a more prominent sign and sprucing up the landscaping with additional plantings.
- Welcome Center & Guest Cottage – Positioned at the top of the entrance road, the welcome center would provide a multipurpose office space to greet guests, distribute literature about SYR’s mission and programming, and conduct the daily administrative activities of the ranch. The adjacent guest cottage, by contrast, would provide a cozier, more home-like atmosphere for visitors to relax at the ranch.
- Outdoor Shelter – Situated at the trailhead of the walking path, an open-sided shelter could provide space for picnic tables, outdoor learning, games and activities, or simply a respite from unexpected inclement weather.
- Caretaker Residence – To enable hands-on management of SYR in all seasons and weathers, a two-story, rustic house could be nestled into the trees lining the property, offering property caretakers privacy when they are not actively involved in the day-to-day business of the ranch.
Progress is a winding path
Armed with WithersRavenel’s conceptual master plan, Rebekah and her Leadership Raleigh group have begun reaching out to construction contractors, material suppliers, and others in their professional networks to solicit monetary and in-kind donations.
She has already seen an outpouring of support: “Thanks to generous donations secured, all freight, labor, and materials for the [walking trail] at Shepherd Youth Ranch are being covered. This means the $4,000 we’ve fundraised so far can go toward enhancing the space with furniture and artwork along the trail.”
To date, the project has received the following commitments:
- Wake Stone Corporation, recently acquired by Vulcan Materials Company, is donating approximately 80+ tons of Chapel Hill grit aggregate.
- Barnhill Contracting is handling transportation from the quarry in Knightdale, NC, to the ranch.
- Rob Sykes of Taylor Site Works, a local contractor, is donating labor and machinery to grade and fill the trail.
- Mid-Atlantic Infrastructure Systems is providing coarser stone to support a small bridge crossing.
Money from Leadership Raleigh’s fundraising efforts can now go toward a barn refresh, including twelve Adirondack chairs; four to six concrete benches; and weatherproof custom artwork placed around the path to guide reflection.
Rebekah aims to finalize donations in early April so they can begin work toward the middle of the month. Leadership Raleigh requires participants to complete their service projects by the end of May, but SYR is hoping to have the work finished before Easter.
Rebekah and her team also hope a future Leadership Raleigh class will take on the next phase of this project.
Serving the servants
SYR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides its services to affected youth at no cost to their families. They rely on grants, donations, and volunteer efforts to be able to help the community.
WithersRavenel offered the time and expertise of the Design + Planning team to SYR pro bono. We appreciate that it is a privilege to be able to donate our work, and we remain humbled by the tireless efforts of the kind and generous people in our communities.
To see more of our Design + Planning projects, check out our Portfolio, and to request planning or landscape architecture services, contact Director of Design Daniel Whatley.