Named after our late founder Richard P. Roehm, the Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch (RRMR) will provide the next level of services necessary in the sensory impaired community (including those with auditory and visual impairments, as well as sensory processing disorder often found in those with autism).
Too often, people with sensory disabilities are turned away from programs that might help them; or worse, there are no programs that can meet their needs. There is a true need for programs and services aimed at the sensory impaired population in the west coast, called "Independent Living" training programs.
The programs include cooking, housekeeping, garden growing, handyman, feeding and caring of livestock, arts & crafts and training in many more skills.
This project involves a $5 million capital campaign to purchase a ranch and/or farm land in the peaceful mountainside, and to provide temporary/long term housing (also known as Group Homes) and extensive rehabilitation training for clients in a therapeutic environment. If you wish to contribute to the Memorial Fund, please let me know. Your help is greatly appreciated!
We currently have 3 group homes: 2 in Santa Ana (at the same address, #4 & #8 right-across-each-other) and 1 in Garden Grove with the total of 8 residents. We are running out of room/spaces, also 1 of the locations is being sold by the owner (the late Richard Roehm's mother). Therefore, we are searching for a good and safe ranch ASAP. We need the ranch set up, and MUST move in by the end of 2015.
Some of our residents want to go to the ranch and some want to stay at the current group homes (We are going to support both programs). We currently have a few people with disabilities in California on our waiting list. Our residents will undergo or have completed medical examinations with a doctor/doctors, evaluations, and criminal background checks.
Here is our "Planning":
Our future ranch shall be made of up to 30 residents, including me and staff members. It needs to be zoned as Disabled Residents with a minimum amount of livestock.
What we are looking for is a large ranch/farm land with a minimum of 25 acres, but not more than 100 acres. Between 40% - 60% of acres are treed/wooded and the remaining acres are for pastures, barn, and storage with the minimum of 3 acres of pretty much "Flat-Land" for homes. We can have someone for grading some of the area if needed.
Also the land needs to allow us to have livestock, such as horses, small cattle, chickens, goats, etc. Property lines should be fenced, but they are not necessary.
Our future ranch shall not be more than one driving hour to the town/city for shopping to places, such as Wal-Mart, the mall, McDonalds, to the hospital/doctors, and entertainment, etc.
Electric power lines should be ready or nearby. A water line would be good, but a large well would be fine, too. A sewer shall be installed. If there isn’t a power-line ready or nearby, then we will need both solar systems and a diesel fueled generator (That way when batteries go low overnight or due to poor weather, the generator should kick on). We really need to have cable/phone lines for our internet, TV, phone and fax usage.
We will have a "Campfire" pit, with spark arresters, if needed. We will also have classrooms, a barn, Koi pond, aquaponics setup, and various other features that help to enrich our clients’ lives.
The land should not have "Too" steep of up/down slopes. A hill would be great and we would love to have a pond and stream/small river, if possible, for fishing and enjoyment. It should have a low or no population of rattlers in the area.
Our Homes: The "Main House" will be a 2 level house with a large kitchen/dining room, a "TV" room along with an office and meeting room (lower level), my "living quarters" on the upper level with special needs housing for up to 8 clients and rooms for two overnight staff, and it will have a fireplace in the "TV" room. Also, there will be small cabin "Studios" (Tiny Homes) with a bathroom and small kitchen for each long term resident to have their own little house to care for to encourage the most independence possible. Each cabin will be less than 600 sq ft. Staff /visitors will have a 1 or 2 bedroom cabin with a kitchen and bathroom and those cabins will be no larger than 700 sq ft. Our staff members will have cell phones and emergency alert pager and will need to have good signal range.
I, Bobby Fleener, have tons of experience in living/camping in the mountains/mountainside in Colorado; I previously leased a 250 acre farm in Texas, have lots of handyman experience on my hands, and am holding an AA's degree.
Please contact me directly if you have any questions or ideas.
Thank you!
Bobby Fleener
Vice President / Manager, Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center
General Manager, the Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch (Future)
rrmr@deafadvocacy.org
