Specialized Care in Ames, Iowa: Life-Changing Therapy and Recovery Facilities

Cultivating Hope Farms

The Greater Ames region offers premier, highly specialized care to individuals with varying cognitive, developmental and emotional needs. By providing compassionate, targeted support, these local facilities drastically improve the quality of life for patients and the regional community as a whole.

From a therapeutic farm serving neurodivergent individuals and their families to a state-of-the-art residential recovery center catering to teenagers and young adults, these cutting-edge facilities provide critical, life-changing care to Iowans from every corner of the state.

Providing Hope: Cultivating Hope Farms Leads in Nature-Based Therapy

At Cultivating Hope Farms, neurodivergent children and their families can benefit from therapeutic treatment in a restorative farm atmosphere. For Gina Perkins, part of the inspiration behind co-founding the farm was her own neurodivergent daughter, who was nonverbal until age 4. After 40 hours of applied behavior analysis therapy on the farm, Perkins’ daughter spoke her first words.

“She is part of the inspiration to the foundation of the care farm, seeing how that environment impacted her,” Perkins says.

Surrounded by horses, cats, cattle and bunnies, individuals with different abilities can receive quality care in a calming environment. Licensed clinicians provide therapy, while children feed cows, pet cats or watch bunnies hop around the room. Everyone’s experience depends upon their needs and abilities, and the facility caters to all levels.

“The treatment is very unique and very individualized,” Perkins says.

From its centralized location in rural Ames, the farm serves families from all over the state. Children of all levels are welcome to attend the farm school, allowing families to remain together while neurodivergent members receive therapy. Cultivating Hope Farms is the first care farm of its kind in the state, and since its beginning in 2018, Perkins has seen families arrive with little hope yet emerge with an abundance.

“They can come to that farm as a family and find hope, and they start walking together in it,” Perkins says.

Cultivating Hope Farms

Aiding in Recovery: Ember Recovery’s State-of-the-Art Youth Campus

For teens and young adults managing substance misuse, Ember Recovery in Cambridge provides a community-focused environment where individuals receive a high level of care. The campus serves as a residential addiction treatment facility for Iowans across the state. While other addiction-focused care facilities exist in the area, Ember Recovery caters specifically to teens and young adults.

“We knew that we needed to step up and champion recovery in teens and young adults, and that was the impetus of our vision for building the Ember Recovery campus,” says Aaron Blass, chief growth officer for YSS of Story County, which has supported child welfare in Ames for 50 years and operates the recovery center.

The $25 million facility was made possible by donors and supporters throughout the community in response to growing concerns across Iowa around substance misuse by teens and young adults. Ember Recovery has been in operation since January 2025 and features 70 beds, a welcoming lodge area for dining and community, and separate cabins for programming and lodging. Recreational facilities for pickleball, weightlifting and wellness allow clients to focus on their physical health as well as their mental and spiritual journeys.

“It’s all designed with community in mind,” Blass says. “Data proves that recovery happens in community. And at some point, they’ll have to go out into the community in which they came from and continue to thrive in their recovery.”

A Complete Continuum of Clinical Care

Ember Recovery provides a continuum of care, from early prevention to residential care and intensive outpatient treatment, which provides clients with intentional checkpoints throughout the week as they go about their lives. Family weekends allow relatives to spend time with loved ones in recovery and gain tools to support them. Different modalities of therapy, from trauma-informed therapy to cognitive behavioral therapy, allow an individualized level of care.

“Clients arrive with us with very little hope and, oftentimes, very little opportunity,” Blass says. “We’re building and curating hope and opportunity for them to use this time in recovery as their launchpad into a great and exceptional life ahead.”