MAIN STAY THERAPEUTIC FARM, INC.
Inspiring Unbridled Joy
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Main Stay provides therapeutic riding, equine and animal assisted therapies, and adaptive gardening for individuals with physical, cognitive, emotional, social and behavioral disabilities. We serve individuals, not diagnoses. Though many of our clients struggle with physical disabilities, social and behavioral challenges, emotional distress, cognitive impairment, developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injury, as well as dementia and memory-related concerns. Main Stay's mission is to enrich mind, body and spirit through powerful connections with horses, animals and nature. Main Stay is a place where bodies are challenged, minds embrace possibilities and spirits are renewed. Main Stay relies on private foundation grants, fundraising activities and generous benefactors to keep fees affordable and attainable for those who need services most.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Therapeutic Riding
Therapeutic Riding lessons teach horsemanship to the unique ability level of each rider and are specifically structured to enhance physical and cognitive strength, gaining self-confidence and improving social and communication skills.
Equine & Animal Assisted Learning
The Equine & Animal Assisted Learning is an evidence-based therapeutic model incorporating hands-on
activities that focus on the social, emotional and behavioral needs of clients. Main Stay’s small group programming partners people with horses and farm animals providing a unique and emotionally safe space to explore a wide variety of social/emotional skills including empathy, trust, conflict resolution, and engaging in positive relationships. Customized activities focus on the specific needs of your students and sessions can be aligned with the State of Illinois social/emotional learning standards.
Adaptive Gardening Program
Adaptive Gardening is a nature-based program that addresses the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of clients using an accessible and educational garden experience. The hands-on approach provides clients opportunities for healing, stress reduction, physical exercise and more.
Harness the Power of Your Team: Team-building for the Workplace
Harness the Power of Your Team: Team-building for the Workplace provides participants with a team-building experience using unique experiential learning activities outside the traditional office setting. This program provides customized activities that partner teams with horses and rescued farm animals. Partnering with horses and animals inspires participants to explore opportunities for self-discovery, creativity, decision-making, and delegating tasks to achieve a common goal.
Harness the Power of Your Team: Team-building for Teens
Harness the Power of Your Team: Team-building for Teens provides teenage groups with in-person or virtual learning and leadership opportunities through experiential activities. Groups are partnered with our horses and rescued farm animals to gain new insight about themselves and others, learn to communicate more effectively, build trust in their team, and form connections with animals and peers. Sessions allow time to integrate learnings at the farm to other areas of their life.
Saddle up Youth Program
Saddle up Youth is a program where kids can connect with horses and friends and gain leadership skills. Kids will work in partnership with a horse to groom, lead and ride, learn how horses are similar to and different from us, and interact with other kids in a healthy, calm, safe, and natural environment.
Farm-to-You Remote Learning Series
Farm-to-You Remote Learning Series is a virtual e-Learning program addressing emotional and academic literacy. Sessions can be formatted to meet social, emotional, and academic needs, and adjusted so students with diverse learning styles and abilities can all experience successful outcomes. Sessions are offered in a live or pre-recorded virtual meeting format. Participants can be from any location around the globe.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International 1989
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults, Social and economic status, Health
Related Program
Equine & Animal Assisted Learning
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The farm is a rich learning environment. A new program Books in the Barnyard is a literacy program that encourages reading skills among emerging readers.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults
Related Program
Therapeutic Riding
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The goals that Main Stay aims to accomplish involve three therapeutic activities: therapeutic riding (TR), equine and animal assisted learning (EAAL) and adaptive gardening (AG). Therapeutic riding helps clients with physical, developmental, cognitive and emotional disabilities by utilizing the movement of the horse to benefit the rider. Sessions teach horsemanship skills to the unique ability level of each rider and are specifically chosen enhance learning, education and social skills. Main Stay's Equine and Animal Assisted Learning programs bring nature and outdoor experiences to developmentally or behaviorally challenged individuals, at-risk youth and memory-challenged seniors. Participants interact with both large and small animals in an adaptive farm setting. They get their hands dirty as they touch and feel the world around them. Clients who are overcoming extreme adversity, abuse or emotional trauma find healing at Main Stay. Equine and animal assisted activities benefit a wide variety of clients. They can complement existing therapies or stand alone as a valuable therapeutic modality. The Adaptive Gardening program at Main Stay offers physical, emotional and behavioral benefits and allows clients to discover and benefit from gardening skills. At Main Stay, participants find a safe environment to explore while experiencing improved physical strength and mobility, a calm setting and clearly outlined tasks to complete. For school-aged children, time spent in the garden increases an awareness and appreciation for food sources that can lead to lifelong healthy eating choices. For a senior group struggling with memory related issues, time in the garden may trigger forgotten memories and improve awareness.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Main Stay Therapeutic Farm tailors therapy sessions in accordance with the needs of individual clients and sessions are taught by qualified Main Stay instructors. Each client has an individualized lesson plan and goals established by a team that can consist of any number of the following: certified riding instructor, a consulting therapist, the client's own goals and desired interests, along with input from the client's own care giver, personal medical team, and educators. This strategy allows for maximum therapeutic benefit per client as determined in each goal. As a premier accredited PATH Int'l (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, International) center, all therapeutic riding and equine facilitated learning sessions are taught by certified PATH instructors. In addition to PATH certification, many of our instructors are also licensed teachers, or occupational/physical/speech/recreational therapists. Animal assisted activity sessions are facilitated by a licensed educator or mental health professional and align with the Illinois Department of Education Social/Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards. Standards include: 1.Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success; 2.Use social awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships; 3.Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school and community contexts. Specific SEL Standard goals related to Equine and Animal Assisted Activities can be included on a student IEP if appropriate. Some collaborating agencies prefer to use other formal or standardized pre- and post- evaluation measures, which are used when requested.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Main Stay Therapeutic Farm is well-equipped to accomplish the goals set for each client. A Main Stay support team helps the client's own outside support group in determining goals for the sessions. An appropriate therapy type (TR, EAAL, AG) is determined and an animal is chosen that will help with the therapy. Volunteers, the backbone of Main Stay, are also chosen to help with many therapeutic sessions. The new facility now makes it possible to run multiple therapies simultaneously and during a majority of the year. Volunteers and staff make it possible to run therapeutic sessions and host outside groups that bring additional revenue to the organization. Main Stay elicits the help of an Advisory Council, a Board of Directors and an Executive Director to give guidance and direction to the organization as it sets and accomplishes a broader set of goals that are used to assure a successful future.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2015 Main Stay underwent a significant physical change when it built a new barn and office facility. It had become clear that the program's success had outgrown the initial barn and farmhouse. The new building allows Main Stay to help a greater number of disabled individuals, more groups and allow different therapy sessions to take place simultaneously. The adaptive gardens allow increased horticulture therapy, also known as "learning outside the classroom." With the new building and the increased capacity that it brought to the program, Main Stay updated its strategic plan. In 2015, a plan was implemented to increase the awareness of the program in the community. Main Stay identified and addressed program needs and opportunities, and worked to ensure that appropriate staff are in the right place/position. Lastly, Main Stay worked to ensure continued financial viability. Additional community outreach, increased fundraising and the generosity of donors allowed Main Stay to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2017. Main Stay will serve 350 individuals in 2017 and provide more than 4500 client sessions. Thirty years of growth and education led Main Stay to a point in time where it adopted the mission to encourage, enrich and empower individuals through the therapeutic benefits of horses, animals and nature in an uplifting and nurturing setting. Main Stay is a place where bodies are challenged, minds embrace possibilities and spirits are renewed. The future includes further growth in client base, including vocational students, team building sessions and educational workshops.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
MAIN STAY THERAPEUTIC FARM, INC.
Board of directorsas of 01/23/2024
Donna Bird
Watlow
Term: 2020 - 2023
Sara Foszcz
Community member
Michelle Runnion
Coordinator of Family Services
Tom Gaughan
Finance Consultant
Donna Bird
Sr. Human Resource Generalist
Jorge Arza
Regional Director, Starbucks
Laura Taubery
Education
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No