For 60 years, the  Los Angeles Residential Community Foundation (LARC) Ranch in Santa Clarita has provided services to developmentally disabled adults to not only help them get through the day, but to help them thrive and live their best lives.

“They learn to live here and integrate into programs and become independent, … whereas they wouldn’t do that necessarily at home,” said Kathleen Sturkey, executive director of LARC Ranch. “They grow independently, remarkably.”

LARC Ranch is a nonprofit that provides residential living facilities and assistance, as well as day programs for clients who live at home, but visit the ranch during the day for sports, classes and social activities, according to Sturkey.

LARC Ranch currently serves 93 residents living on-site at their 65-acre ranch on the north end of the Santa Clarita Valley along Bouquet Canyon Road.  The residences are fully furnished and include around-the-clock staff assistance for residents, Sturkey said.

Residents receive job training and help finding work, as well as transportation to work and medical appointments. They can also enjoy a wide range of extracurricular activities, with 90 percent of residents participating in the Special Olympics, according to Sturkey.

“Because we’re large, we can provide many more activities within LARC Ranch,” Sturkey said. “We’re going to have an October dance here soon for Halloween. Also programs such as Kiwanis Aktion Club, which allows members to go into the community to do good deeds.”

The decision to place an adult with a developmental disability into the kind of permanent supportive housing provided at LARC Ranch can be a difficult one, but can also be liberating for parents, according to Sturkey.

“When parents come to me, they’re giving their child, their adult child, over to us, and it allows those parents to now have a kind of freedom that they thought they would never have before,” Sturkey said.

While at LARC Ranch, residents learn how to cook their own meals and even shop for themselves at the small market on-site, which Sturkey refers to as “their Costco.”

“They learn how to live with other individuals, with their peers,” she said. “They learn how to go into the community and be a part of the community. They learn how to become more independent with a kind of cushion behind them that is LARC Ranch.”

Sturkey urges residents of Santa Clarita, even if they don’t need the services provided by LARC Ranch, to visit the facility and better understand the services they provide to the community.

“When you come and see LARC, you begin to understand how important and special she is,” Sturkey said. “And she’s part of the Santa Clarita Valley.  I realize people who don’t need us don’t come to see us, but this is one of the jewels of Santa Clarita.”

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