Harold and Debbie Diggs lost their daughter Hollie in 2002, and they are determined that her name will live on in the youth ranch they’re working to build.
The couple, who operate the Diggs School of Dance in Gloucester, has established a faith-based, nonprofit organization to accomplish that goal. The Hollie Mignon Diggs Memorial Trust and Youth Ranch Inc., is seeking property for the ranch and donations to get the project off the ground.
Hollie was a parole and probation officer in the juvenile justice system at the time of her death at age 31, said Harold Diggs. She was responsible for juvenile screening and placement, and one of her greatest frustrations was that there never seemed to be the right place to put the children she came across.
“A big city is not the appropriate place for a child who grew up in a rural area,” he said. “It’s away from the family and in a foreign environment.”
When a family has been split up because a child has been abandoned, abused or neglected, has run away from home, or has committed a minor legal infraction, said Diggs, the already-difficult reunification process is made even harder if the parents haven’t been able to visit the child because they’re too far away. And family reunification is always the goal, he said.
Children in such situations often get sent to juvenile detention first, said Diggs, and then to a foster home. While there are some wonderful foster parents, he said, some know little about parenting and are motivated by money.
“Kids don’t belong in an institution,” he said. “But without the right structure, environment and nurturing, they will go from bad to worse and become full-time wards of the state.”
One of Hollie’s visions was a facility for rural placement somewhere on the Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck, said Diggs. Hollie was herself a product of a rural environment. She had been a 4-H member in school, and she was an equestrian who had ridden horses since childhood. Since her death (she died from either an aneurism or a seizure while swimming), Diggs has been working on a viable program that would serve children’s needs in a family-oriented, structured environment.
What he has in mind is a compound of family cottages, each staffed by a trained husband-and-wife team, on a working ranch, with horses and other farm animals for children to take care of. There would ideally be a cafeteria, a library, classrooms, recreational areas, a gymnasium, livestock barns, fields for raising crops and produce, storage silos and a wildlife sanctuary, he said.
The youth being served would be those who haven’t responded to other remedies and who have serious behavioral problems, lack of success in school, and possibly a history of aggressive behavior, or drug or alcohol misuse, said Diggs. The children, who would be between the ages of 10 and 17, could be unable to live at home, they could exhibit runaway behavior, or they might be victims of sexual abuse.
There would be no proselytizing, said Diggs, and the ranch would be nonsectarian, but since research shows that “getting in touch with a higher power” can aid in strong, positive character development, the children would learn to pray and be encouraged to receive spiritual and religious instruction on a regular basis.
A psychologist and educator himself, Diggs said that the ranch would use a self-help model, with a low tolerance for inappropriate behaviors coupled with high warmth and praise for appropriate behaviors. Children would be responsible for caring for the livestock and helping with the food raised on the ranch, he said, adding that one therapeutic strategy is equine therapy.
“A kid would be assigned a large animal to be responsible for,” he said. “They can’t make a horse do anything it doesn’t want to do. They can continue to battle it or figure out a way to develop a relationship … Once you have that kind of relationship with a horse, it’s magic,” he said.
Equine therapy would be coupled with traditional therapy, both one-on-one and group, said Diggs. He said that Boys Town uses such a model.
“It is a model that empowers youth to become working and contributing members of their families and communities,” he said.
While contractors and supply stores have said they were willing to get involved, said Diggs, nothing can be done until the land is purchased. He has so far raised around $150,000, but the ranch would need to be around 100 acres. A couple of sites have been auctioned off in recent years, he said, but he was outbid each time. He hopes to have the capital to be the winning bidder the next time the perfect place is available.
For more information or to donate, call 804-758-8544, e-mail had@hmdtrust.org, or write the Hollie Mignon Diggs Memorial Trust and Youth Ranch Inc. at P.O. Box 217, Topping, Virginia 23169-0217.