The Heart Behind our Progam

Our Program Roots

Our program is unique and serves a small, but growing population of adults with developmental impairments.  Most programs are designed to support one specific diagnosis, creating a one-size-fits-all model of “care”.  Traditional progams are designed to provide caregiving, meeting the needs of the adult in need without offering guidance or teaching them the steps needed to be more independent.  Ultimately, this model is useful to a very small population of individuals that may not have the capacity to engage their own program.  However, most adults ARE capable of learning, growing, and developing new skills and SLS bridges that gap between current skills and developing new ones that support independence and self-direction.  

Compass Rose Ranch was developed in response to the limited resources available to provide alternatives to the traditional Board and Care or Group home models of care.  In most cases, families are not even aware of this program type.  We focus our in-home support services towards providing self-directed opportunities that improve self-efficacy and quality of life through practical skill-building and implementation of Evidence-Based support and individualized treatment planning.  
We offer several program types including live-in, licensed 24-hour residential care in our 6-bed (male only) facility, out-of-home respite services for up to 14 days, and community-based referral and case-management for independent living.  Our services are developed using a thoughtful process of assessment, integrated treatment planning, team collaboration that includes the client as the primary decision maker.  We absolutely encourage family involvement and support person involvement.

​For more details about Compass Rose Ranch or to apply, please go to the "HOW TO APPLY" page or Contact us!  

Where it all began

Everything starts with one great idea and a whole lot of heart and passion.  Compass Rose Ranch was developed  and founded by Theresa Del Biaggio in 2019.  Founded in response to the limited services available in El Dorado County and out of personal and professional experience, navigating services that did not exist or where needed programs were severely impacted with long and unreasonable waiting lists .  Theresa and her husband were tired and raising a child with special needs had taken its toll on her individually, on the family, and they knew that something needed to change.  With few options available and all of the programs deeply impacted with waitlists a mile long, she decided to take matters into her own hands, creating a program that would start with providing services to her own son as a single client vendor and then to the community.  

As a Social Worker in El Dorado County, Theresa felt inspired to create a service that did not yet exist for her own adult son and through her personal experiences navigating a broken system, Compass Rose SLS was born. Though the real inspiration is the people we aim to serve and the desire to create authentic change in our community by providing a positive model to follow. 

It is with great compassion and a strong desire to advocate for vulnerable individuals to have equal access to the support services they need and deserve that we developed Compass Rose Ranch. 

Though we work with adults, we also recognize clients have and need supportive connections; potentially the single and most important component to the individuals we serve.  We can offer resources, information or assistance with finding information or services that are needed.  We also support parents and caregivers through the process of vendoring with the Regional Center as a Parent Vendor of SLS.  If you are a parent or caregiver and you want to create an agency like we did, we can help.  It is not an easy process, but for us it was the answer we needed and our son has truly benefited from having SLS services.

Compass Rose is now a collection of people, united by our desire to support an underserved population in our community and make a viable difference that stretches beyond our immediate area.  

We see our role as one that can have impact and set an example for other agencies to follow.  We will continue advocating as a voice for the tired and weary, those who need guidance and support, and for individuals with disabilities of various types, each deserving of independence and dignity in their every-day-life,

Each individual we serve will feel valued, and have opportunities to build a meaningful life that improves independence and overall well-being.

What We Believe

Our beliefs are really simple: nurture and enhance the community where we live by offering residential and community-based services that will enhance the lives of individuals with developmental and mental health impairments.  Our team is dedicated to creating  change in the hopes that we can work together to improve lives, strengthen families, increase access, reduce stigma, improve self-efficacy and quality of life and build independence in the clients we serve.  ​

Interested in Working With Us?

Do you have a fiery , unbridled passion to make a difference? Can't help yourself when it comes to advocating for vulnerable populations?  Do you have a talent for helping people?  You came to the right place!  We are always looking for awesome, caring, respectful, reliable people to join our team.  We don't hire "meh", we hire dynamic, energetic and passionate.  If this is you, call us!  We would love to talk with you!
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