ACTHA Charity of the Month
ACTHA Monthly | September 2015 | 34
(continued)
Freedom Horses now provides services in five states. Our goal is to have programs in every state.
The beauty of the Freedom Horses program is it is just that, it's a program. And it’s completely unique in that program services are all provided by volunteer horse owners with the client never paying a fee. Freedom Horses even helps out with gas money at times. And we operate on a shoestring!
When we were researching the concept, we saw plenty of therapeutic riding programs complete with counselors, etc. That’s not the Freedom Horse model. In fact, we turn down requests from fee-charging centers and psychologists. Instead, we train common volunteers with a heart for the cause, who want to donate meaningful relaxation time and Christian love for women to gain their confidence. And it works beautifully.
Freedom Horses now provides services in five states, but our goal is to have programs operating in every state. If there are abused women, we want to be there offering hope. We desperately need a full time director but haven’t had the funds to make that happen. We limp along with just one part-time paid admin to keep us rolling. Everyone else is a volunteer including me! Most of us work full time jobs, none of us are professional fundraisers, professional website people or PR people, so we need help!
rolling. Everyone else is a volunteer including me! Most of us work full time jobs, none of us are professional fundraisers, professional website people or PR people, so we need help!
ACTHA events have been our main fundraising vehicle
ACTHA has been a huge blessing to Freedom Horses. The CTCs and AOCs have been our main fundraising vehicle. Not only that, but the local Freedom Horses grads get to be ACTHA ride day volunteers and judges giving back to the cause. It’s been exciting to see formerly shy women be able to get up at the lunch awards and talk. Lots of tears shed by all during those moments!
We are extremely clear on our mission -- Freedom Horses helps women gain courage, compassion and confidence through interactions with horses and their volunteer owners. We need more volunteers with horses (we call them sites as all this is done at the volunteer’s home), more funding and more help.
If you are willing to help in any way, please contact Betsi Bixby at [email protected].
To learn more about Freedom Horses visit our website www.freedomhorses.org.