SOUL HARBOUR RANCH ANIMAL THERAPY PROGRAM

Our entire program revolves around enriching the lives of others through visits and connections with our specially-trained therapy animals.
We aim to visit as many places as possible on weekends and weekdays.
As a young and growing nonprofit, obtaining grants is another need to sustain us, as we do not charge for visits. Since incorporation in January 2018, we have achieved great success and hope to continue for sustainability. We put together a professional video in 2019 to reach more donor (thanks to a grant from the McKenzie Foundation), and we put together another video in 2021 highlighting our newest SOUL KIDS program (Kindness, Inclusion, Diversity, Service), which shares the Just Say WHOA to Bullying Program and the SOUL Buddies Animal Therapy Club at Barrington High School.

Our immediate needs:
1. More registered animal therapy teams
2. Continued grants and donations to sustain animals expenses (feed, bedding, tack supplies, vet care, dental care).
3. Continued grants and donations to support the ongoing operational expenses (insurance, marketing, transportation expenses)

FUTURE:
We plan a capital campaign in 2022 to fund a large 60 x 120 training center so we can accommodate and train more animal therapy teams to help more people. The building itself is $150,000 plus the buildout estimate of $50,000 (to include permits, utilities, electrical, concrete, doors, etc). for a total campaign fund of $200,000.

Strategies:
1. Align ourselves with prominent community business leaders, including the Barrington Area Development Council and Barrington Area Community Foundation, to help further our mission.
2. Continue to network through the Barrington Area Chamber of Commerce, of which we are members. We will attend events such as the Family Expo to increase our marketing presence so people know about us and our mission. Plus the community has a chance to visit and connect with our special registered/certified therapy animals.
3. Continue to build a strong and cohesive support from within.
4. The professional video was accomplished in 2019 (funded by the McKenzie Foundation) helped us to increase awareness and help people connect with us on an emotional level, so they understand what SOUL (Sharing of Unconditional Love) is all about.
5. The SOUL Buddies Animal Therapy Club at Barrington High School will allow students to be a part of a formal BHS club, while providing mentorship and building leadership skills while handling our animals. The students will then interact with our community at SOUL Buddies visits. If they would like to handle and visit more often, they are also invited to train and visit with the SOUL Harbour Ranch Animal Therapy Program.

1. Ongoing training and competencies with our animals through national therapy animal organizations, as well as partnering with animal therapy groups who have similar standards and guidelines.
2. Our operational and program costs are funded through grants, donations and fundraising. Thus far we have been very successful in sustaining our program, though we are all volunteers. We hope to increase our volunteer staff to clean and even have full-time staff caring for the animals to alleviate the burden of such time-intensive care.
3. Capital campaign planned for 2022 for the SOUL Harbour Ranch Animal Therapy Program Training Center.
4. Marketing campaign for greater outreach to people who have their own animals; mentoring them until they become registered Pet Partners therapy teams at which point they can join us (in other words, that they have passed on therapy animal competencies).

2018 was our first year of incorporation; however, the therapy animals of the SOUL Harbour Ranch Animal Therapy Program are very experienced, as are many of the handlers. Founder Jodie Diegel also founded Mane in Heaven in 2012, of which the miniature therapy horses were a part of through the end of 2017. Many of those past volunteers followed to SOUL Harbour Ranch to establish the area's premier and most comprehensive animal therapy program in the Barrington area.

Heading into 2022, the SOUL Harbour Ranch Animal Therapy Program had become the Chicagoland's largest comprehensive animal therapy program with 40 registered Pet Partners handlers and almost 100 registered therapy animals teams! (Pet Partners is the nation's gold standard for animal-assisted intervention and we are proud to align with their standards of excellence www.petpartners.org)

Our program includes the following Pet Partners registered therapy animals: 10 miniature therapy horses, 7 registered therapy dogs , 1 registered therapy cat, and 4 miniature therapy donkeys (all in training). Our program takes the national standards and guidelines to heart and follows the policies and procedures that Pet Partners sets forth: that EACH animal tests with each and every person that wants to handle them. We do not just have 1 person test and say that horse or dog is now registered/certified, as other groups may do. We ensure the minimum 6 months of training, communication and bonding between the handler and the animal. In other words, our organization maintains the integrity as set forth by national therapy animal standards, thus the 2nd part of mission statements: "Advocating for therapy animal standards of excellence."
We have had training sessions and visits every weekend and often during the week; thus, a total of 80 visits, 56% of which were serving the Barrington community, our wonderful hometown.

What's next? We dream BIG! We look forward to the following in 2022:
1. continue building awareness of who we are because we want to build up the number of therapy animals loved and owned by future volunteers (not just volunteers becoming registered on our animals, but rather their own much loved animals)
2. finding more donors to support and sustain our program
3. ensuring that the integrity and professionalism of our program is what separates us from other organizations
4. 2022 Capital Campaign: creating a "home base" at SOUL Harbour Ranch with our own indoor training center
5. having more students join the SOUL Buddies Animal Therapy Club at Barrington High School, to foster camaraderie, leadership and mentorship for a future of animal handling for the students, who in turn can make a difference in our community (and obtain service hours at the same time!)
6. increasing volunteer staff to help care for our animals and possibly hiring someone to care for the morning and evening feeding and cleaning (approx 4 hours total/day)