Every four years, Ranch Ehrlo undergoes the rigorous process of being re-accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA).

As we’ve said before - at Ranch Ehrlo, we strongly believe that adhering to best practices, as well as continually evaluating all that we do, helps us enhance our services for the young people, adults, and families who depend on us. For that reason (and many more) we choose to pursue accreditation as a means to periodically and thoroughly review everything we do.

In November, we received word that we have officially been re-accredited for another four years. The process takes many months (you can read about some of that here https://ehrlo.com/about-us/whats-new/destination-coa-accreditation.) Although one person is designated the lead, it’s truly a team effort.

The process requires numerous departments, programs, and employees to work together – first, gathering the required documentation and reviewing policies and procedures for the document and evidence preparation and the review of Standards, to finally, some employees being interviewed in-person by the COA peer review team. In spite of how diverse our employee base is, and how many departments we have, we work incredibly well together as a team.

There were 1,070 assigned standards, divided into 20 sections. All standards are rated on a 4-point scale, 1 indicating “the full implementation of the Standards and an outstanding performance.” Of 1070, we received a “1” on 920 standards (86 per cent!) The remaining 14 per cent were rated “2”, which means “substantial implementation of the standards and a strong performance.” You can read the full report here. 

Besides the huge effort from so many employees, I learned that the agency is connected with literally hundreds of individuals, groups, and organizations. This was evident during the stakeholder survey process, where over 1,000 individuals – internally, throughout our various geographic locations, and nation-wide – were contacted to offer their opinion on Ranch Ehrlo and its services.

As they say – it takes a village. Though the process to become re-accredited only happens once every four years our agency truly bases much of its’ day-to-day functioning on COA’s evidence-based best practices, which means we work together for the good of those we serve, every day. The accreditation process allows us to see our strengths and brings out areas of challenge and spots that need improvement as well, which helps us to live up to our full potential – and in turn, help those we serve to live up to theirs.

Great job, everyone!