Our Mission

The mission of Buckhorn Children & Family Services is to provide a sanctuary of health, healing, and hope for at-risk children, youth, and families.

As professionals and concerned citizens, we strive to provide competent, caring treatment, education, and advocacy services to Kentucky’s most at-risk kids. Our campus communities are dedicated to serving kids and strengthening families as they work to overcome a variety of life crises, including chronic and severe abuse and neglect.

Located in the scenic Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky, our residential campuses in Buckhorn and Pine Ridge offer secure, compassionate, and therapeutic communities to our kids. Here they will know that they are someplace safe, different, and special.

“We strive to create an environment in which every person who receives our services feels cared for, safe, empowered, respected, and accepted.”

– Buckhorn Children & Family Services

BCFS is known for taking on the toughest kids, building a personalized program that works for each one, and sticking with them all the way through the treatment process. Through our system of evidence-based, trauma-informed care, the staff at BCFS

assists the child/youth and families in rebuilding their lives. At BCFS, we are dedicated to providing our clients the very best treatment, education, and services that are child-centered, family-focused, and community-based.

Our Philosophy

Child Centered

Child-Centered

The children we serve in our residential and therapeutic foster care settings range in age from 12 to 17. These children have been placed in our continuum of care due to significant abuse, trauma, and/or neglect issues within a previous biological, adoptive, or foster care home.

Children in our Family Preservation Program cover the entire age span and are placed within the program to eradicate issues that have been cited in the home.

Throughout our history, we have discovered that children thrive best in a safe environment that provides consistency, structure, and nurturance. Our services are delivered with an empathic response that includes the child, family, and community’s voice and participation, which leads to individualized, strengths-based interventions. This approach builds skills that strive for sustainable outcomes. We believe sustainability is best achieved with an integrated approach among all involved parties.


Family-Focused

BCFS serves children and families from all different backgrounds and configurations. Whether issues are found within a biological, adoptive, or foster family, BCFS stands ready to assist all.

We have discovered that families — traditional and nontraditional — thrive best when they are heard, respected, and empowered to define their needs and embrace their capacity to heal. Our services are delivered to the family unit with a culturally competent, empathic, and holistic model. This approach promotes family engagement that strives for increased cohesion and change within the family.

Sustainability is only achieved when change occurs within the framework of the family.


Community-based

Children and families respond best to treatment that includes the community and culture in which they live. Services provided by BCFS are delivered in the least restrictive setting that promotes awareness, ownership, and connection to the natural community.

This child-centered, family-focused approach is reliant upon a community network that is proactively engaged. Sustainability is contingent upon community support and accountability for maintaining the safety, well-being, and permanency of the child and family. Also, as advocates, it is our duty to heighten community and legislative awareness of the difficult challenges families face.

The professionals at BCFS believe that with the proper support, children and families possess the capacity to heal. Our role is to help children and families identify what strengths they possess and aid them in leveraging those skills and resources to overcome obstacles and to live empowered lives.