At HorseSensing, we help veterans and recovering addicts with Post Traumatic Stress, substance abuse, depression and other issues through giving them a purpose, a reason to wake up in the morning, and the skills to work with horses as a career.
Right now in any major city, there are homeless veterans without a purpose and without a job. They gave so much to our country but upon return to the U.S. were not able to transition successfully. This contributes to the astronomical suicide rate among veterans.
Our nationwide drug addiction problem and the people and families who are ruined by it still flies under the radar because of the stigma attached to addiction. We don't worry so much about how they got there but instead, what we can do to help each individual. By giving them a place to live, train and recover and then a purpose and a path, we know that the ripple effect of each former addict we help will spread and those folks will help others like we are helping them right now.
How we will use the money you donate-
We will use the money to expand our program. Our mission has grown and our vision for our participant's lives, to be permanently changed with our residential programs, has proven to be effective. The men and women that have gone through our program have remained sober and have regained their self-efficacy, hope and confidence that they can be not only stable but productive, happy and satisfied in their lives.
We began the residential piece of our program January 2022 with one house and now have completed the second house and are able to increase our capacity. That house is now full! We are in the process of building one more house to accommodate the waiting list of folks needing help that we can give them. We have learned along the way that 3 months is enough time to train them and certify them to work, but it is not a sufficient time to ensure their sobriety. We grow and change as we learn how to be more effective. We now have a 6 month program.
The first 3 months consist of daily training, 6 recovery meetings per week, weekly psychotherapy sessions with our doctoral interns from Spaulding University, drug and alcohol testing, and constant support from our staff led by a licensed psychologist. The next three months consist of an internship with a local professional horse farm, job placement while continuing to live here at HorseSensing and attainment of sobriety goals in addition to real world needs being taken care of prior to moving on to their own permanent housing.
These real world needs include providing them transportation, completing any legal system requirements that encumber them, being sure they are licensed to drive, and their mental health and physical health needs, including medications for issues like depression and PTSD.Because we are led by a licensed psychologist, we understand that mental health medications are sometimes necessary for full functioning and long term sobriety, even preventing suicide.
Supporting all aspects of our program costs money. We have a waiting list for men to come in. A top priority for us is also the mending of family problems and reunification with their children. Because we are a horse farm we are the perfect place for long broken bonds to heal and trust to once again be built among the families of our participants.
In addition to our residential programs we have been able to provide the Shelby County community many day long programs each year, making HorseSensing a family setting for the whole community.
We have one paid staff person who makes $21,000.00 per year. The rest of us are volunteers. We are fortunate to have many volunteers who are passionate and help us help them. We are always looking for more volunteers. We would welcome your passion and purpose!
HorseSensing is a win, win, win for the veterans and recovering addicts, horses, and the many horse farms across Kentucky and the nation that need good help. Your donation will help support the program, the horses and the people receiving job skills, emotional support and job placement through HorseSensing.We humbly ask you to help us help them. Thank you!