A prayer for God’s grace upon a new program for Community Share Ministries was followed on Sunday by the first shovelful of dirt dug out of the ground in celebration of a new project in Polk County meant to give boys an opportunity to grow and thrive within an environment of love.

The groundbreaking on October 3 for the Safe Haven Ranch concluded without the weather interrupting the plans of CSM founder Jason Slaughter, who with the new boys home project seeks to provide something that isn’t available locally.

“We’ve had a children’s home now for about seven years at the bottom of this hill. But God began to instruct me and my board that this will be a boy’s ranch, and it will also be a private placement facility.,” Slaughter said on Sunday during the ceremony. “We’ve been gleaning from an organization over in Alabama called the Big Oak Ranch. This is the way that they’ve been operating for the past 40 years.”

The future Safe Haven Ranch will have four houses and a central community center on 40 acres of land well off of Piedmont Highway west of Cedartown.

The goal is to be able to house six boys – along with a volunteer family and their children – in each house, offering 24 young men the chance to grow up under better circumstances.

Slaughter thanked numerous people for their help with the project so far and said that they’ll be starting out with a single house that has already been promised to be built by a developer who wished to remain anonymous. Slaughter expects the project to cost in the millions before it is completed, and is already seeking additional fundraising help for those who want to ensure a boy’s home is available in Polk County.

Community Share Ministries already provides housing programs for men and women locally as well, along with an existing children’s home capable of providing housing for only a few youths at a time.

Slaughter’s ultimate goal is to have the boy’s ranch and then to expand with a girl’s ranch as well as they find additional property and funds as they become available.

Work was set to begin on October 4 in earnest on clearing the property for the first house on the ranch, but Slaughter said that would be depending on the weather conditions.

Slaughter began Community Share Ministries in 2011, getting out of business as a Verizon Wireless store operator here in Polk County to develop the ministry which as since grown to incorporate housing, but also the Community Share Ministries Thrift Store and Crazy Mart, proceeds of which go toward CSM’s missions.

Find out more about CSM’s story how to help the new Safe Have Ranch here.