Refuge Ranch

The Refuge Ranch is a 21-building, $7 million, labor of love, nestled among the Bastrop County pine trees. Developed by The Refuge for DMST™ (Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking), a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Refuge Ranch, is a long-term, residential, therapeutic community for 48 girls, minors through age 19, who have been rescued out of sex trafficking. Built from the ground up on 50 acres in a beautiful and restorative setting, The Refuge Ranch provides trauma-informed, holistic care for the girls on site, including: a University of Texas Charter School program, a medical clinic staffed by community partners and various therapeutic programs uniquely designed for the development of a child survivor.

The Refuge Ranch, with 48 beds, is the largest long-term, live-in rehabilitation facility for child survivors of sex trafficking in the United States. (See some recent photographs of The Refuge Ranch.)

Here’s why The Refuge Ranch is needed:

• Child sex trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world.
•  In the U.S. there was an 846% increase in reported child sex trafficking cases from 2010 to 2015.
• There are currently 79,000 young adults and minors being sex trafficked in Texas.
•  Texas has the second most reported number of child sex trafficking cases in the U.S.
• There are less than 600 beds available nationwide for child sex trafficking survivors, but we have over 13,000 animal shelters.
• Prior to the opening of The Refuge Ranch, Texas only had 24 beds available for child survivors’ long term recovery from trauma.