Our mission is to mentor young adults seeking direction in acquiring the spiritual, emotional, and physical skills necessary to lead successful, responsible, lives.

In our last newsletter, we asked for help in several areas, and got an amazing response!

We now have a lunchtime cook one day/week, several people interested in helping to make the ranch house look "cute" again, a landscaping student who wants to help us with the Resort grounds, and our library is now organized! WOW!

We have also had several vehicles donated to us lately. The sale of those vehicles helps both Alpha Academy and other local nonprofits.

THANK YOU so much for all of your prayers and support. If you are interested in helping out, please check our volunteer listings at: 

• VolunteerSLO
  (search "Son Care Foundation") 
• Volunteer Match
  

Here are some other areas we would value your prayers:

• continued growth for our students & staff
• our small businesses: Thousand Hills Pet Resort, missioncars.com, webcarsandtrucks.com
• a new tenant for the Omega House
• quality replacements for our House Leaders
• Kyle, our NEWLY MARRIED Resort Manager!
• former students who are struggling

One of the most rewarding parts of Alpha Academy is seeing our former students raising their own families. We recently got to welcome Jack into the "Alpha Academy" family.

Congratulations David and Tracy!

August was an exciting month for our students! Jack led an expedition to the Sequoias where, alongside Nature Corps, our students camped and did service work for several days. This is our 3rd trip with Nature Corps, and they have all been fantastic!

With us on this trip were students from Hawaii, Nebraska, San Diego, and San Luis Obispo. Some had never been camping, and many had never seen the mountains and the big trees. Getting our students off the Ranch and doing service work is important to us.

A huge THANK YOU to Nature Corps for the invitation! They work with many groups, so if this sounds fun for YOUR group, give them a call!

Our students also took a trip to San Diego with our House Leaders for a John Piper "Don't Waste Your Life" conference in San Diego. It was a fun time for all, and good for our students and House Leaders to spend time together away from the Ranch. 

It's exciting to see our students actively learning and growing in so many areas, and we are blessed by excellent house leaders who committed to investing in their lives.

Please remember our students and House Leaders in prayer, as they all seek to learn what they should do with their lives.

Another organization we have been privileged to work with is the Business Assistance Center at Cuesta College. The Director, Israel Dominguez, has been coming to Alpha Academy twice a week for several weeks to lead our students through the Young Entrepreneurs Program. Our students are learning how to:

• write a business plan
• read a profit/loss sheet
  
• create a budget
• present their ideas to lenders

This has been a great experience for our students to focus on their strengths and interests, as they seriously consider small business as an option for their future.

We are grateful for Israel and his excellent curriculum! 

Vocational Programs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and more!

We have never wanted to "re-invent the wheel" at Alpha Academy, but have instead tried to recognize and use existing resources in the community. One such resource is the ROP (Regional Occupational Program) vocational training program, offered through the school district. Alpha Academy students have the opportunity to participate in vocational classes, free of charge (space permitting), studying everything from computers to construction to culinary skills. Many of these programs are in conjunction with the local junior college, allowing our students to earn some college-level credit as well!

Being a resource TO the community is important to us as well. In the past we have worked together with the local community school and with Grizzly Academy. Currently, other groups (including Big Brothers Big Sisters of SLO County) have made use of the Pet Resort for job shadowing and other career-related services. We are delighted to be working with so many wonderful people in the community, and are always seeking new partners. Have an idea of how we might be able to work together? Let us know!

We have added two new faces to our group: Connor (from Santa Barbara) and Blake (from SLO). We're glad you're here!

At the same time, we are saying "good-bye" to Paul, who is preparing to graduate from Alpha Academy. He just signed a lease for an apartment in town with a solid Christian roommate, and is currently job hunting. He will move out of Alpha this week, and into "Phase Two", a time of living out his plan and making solid choices away from Alpha Academy.

He plans to stay in San Luis Obispo and attend college starting next spring. We are proud of Paul and looking forward to throwing him a graduation party as he transitions out of Alpha Academy. Good job, Paul!