Happy Hill Farm Academy Home

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Happy Hill Farm Academy Home

Happy Hill Farm Academy Home is a 500-plus acre Christian private academy/children's home located 12 miles (19 km) outside the city of Granbury, Texas. It was founded in 1975 by Pastor Ed Shipman and his wife and Gloria.

[edit] History of HHF

In 1974, Ed and Gloria Shipman, in their forties, lived in their country home on land just outside Granbury, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Ed was happy in his ministry and work. Their two sons, Chuck and Todd, were sixteen and fourteen years of age. The family was "comfortable." Little did the Shipmans realize that a telephone call for help from a local Marshall was about to change the whole course of their lives. In response to that Marshall's appeal for help, the Shipmans took briefly into their home two teenage runaway sisters. In an effort to find a permanent home for the girls, the Shipmans visited child-care facilities throughout Texas. The sisters were finally placed in a small children's home near Austin, but the Shipman family had been gripped emotionally. They were now primarily aware of the desperate plight of thousands of America‚s hurting boys and girls — the "drop-outs" and "kicked-outs" of society.

A year later, 1975, with personal financial resources sufficient to last only a few years, but with what they felt to be a sense of divine direction, the Shipmans opened their hearts and officially opened the doors of Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home to a group of young boys.

For three decades Happy Hill Farm has been a safe haven for hundreds and hundreds of boys and girls, who, for whatever reason, are not able to live in traditional family and school settings. Many have been abused and neglected. All are desperately in need of help if they are to survive and become productive young adults.

The children come to the campus of Happy Hill Farm from throughout Texas. Most are referred by teachers or counselors who know of the Farm's reputation for quality care and education. They also know that Happy Hill Farm is one of the few schools that will take children regardless of their ability to pay.

Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home is licensed as a residential treatment facility, though they function more like a private boarding school for poor, inner-city children. Boys and girls (ages six to eighteen) live on the campus year-round. Most come from broken homes. Many of them need to be out of their family situation if they are to get their lives back together and move on to productive young adulthood. Fees and tuition from the families account for less than ten percent of the Farm's annual budget. The balance of the funds, to cover all of the children's needs, come from the private sector. Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home does not receive any State or Federal funding. Many of the children come with not much more than the clothing they are wearing. Therefore, HHF must raise 90% of the Farm's annual budget to survive year to year.

HHF has been providing a private school, clothing, food, shelter, vocational training, and counseling to indigent boys and girls for more than 30 years now. Happy Hill Farm is a 500 acre (2 km²) farm-campus including a fully-accredited (K-12) private school, designed to accommodate more than 100 students. There is a health care center, athletic center, dining center, fine arts center, twelve housing units, staff housing, an 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m²) agricultural center with a show ring, livestock pens, stables and riding trails, athletic fields, swimming pool, tennis courts, and administrative center.

HHF is part of a larger community of residential education programs focused on serving those children most in need. It is a member of the national network of these programs called the Coalition for Residential Education (CORE). Other programs include the Milton Hershey School, Girard College, and Mooseheart. These programs seek to provide students with a safe and supportive learning environment outside of the traditional family setting.

Through their social workers and counselors, HHF tries to help the entire family as much as possible, but HHF's first commitment is to the children. Over the years, they have seen literally hundreds of these at-risk boys and girls rise above their environment and move on into life as successful adults.

[edit] Farm Life

As a working farm, Happy Hill Farm raises its own beef, lamb, and pork. There are horses and a host of pets. The Farm has a very large and active 4-H program. Students daily care for the livestock. Grain and hay crops are grown for the livestock.

Happy Hill Farm's boys and girls teams excel in track, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, and more, competing in the Texas Association of Private Schools League. The gymnasium trophy case is packed with awards, bearing testimony to the students‚ hard work, and athletic abilities. In 2002 and 2003, the HHF boys football team won the state championships for private schools.

The residents live in one of twelve residential houses (units), six for males and six for females. There are up to eight children per house, two per room, and each unit has a live-in houseparent couple, and a live-in single assistant houseparent. The houseparents or coordinators help each child learn basic life skill to further themselves upon leaving the academy home. The married and single houseparents have separate apartments attached at each end of the unit, assuring supervision 24 hours a day.

Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home is licensed by the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. Happy Hill Farm Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Texas Association of Private Schools and the Texas Association of Non-Public Schools.