You know what sucks more than a vacuum cleaner?
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That a not-for-profit organisation supplying a one-of-a-kind mental health support service has to ask for handouts for things such as vacuums so that its limited funding can be used for more important things like delivering its effective program.
“It’s like asking for crumbs to feed the masses,” Horses for Hope’s new program director Kim Hider said.
Alas, floors will always need cleaning.
And thankfully, charitable business owners, such as Brad and Jac McCarty, are happy to help.
Through their cleaning supplies business, Everyday Supplies, in conjunction with Cleanstar, they donated a brand-new vacuum last week to Horses for Hope, a service that provides therapy for both horses and humans.
Founder and outgoing program director Colin Emonson said that throughout the organisation’s 20 years of operation, it has always needed community support.
“Everyone in a community has a responsibility to look after everybody else in the community,” Mr Emonson said.
“We need the support of the community to do this for the community.”
“Every small and large contribution is gratefully received; hence the vacuum cleaner.”
Mr Emonson, who entered semi-retirement last week, has dedicated most of his working life to youth and family services.
Horses for Hope was his brainchild.
The idea came about from having horses himself combined with his ongoing quest to help children and young people who had trouble engaging.
The idea is to form connections between horses and humans to heal and improve the lives of both.
Each 90-minute client session consists of an initial chat with a counsellor followed by some horse work in the yard led and supervised by a horse practitioner and finished with a debrief.
It’s effective in fostering self-efficacy, empathy, resilience and emotional management skills, resulting in improved wellbeing, a regulated nervous system, new ways to handle challenges, and knowing the life of a horse learning to trust humans again has been improved.
There are currently nine horses on the 25-acre property at Mooroopna North, all of whom have experienced trauma of some sort, be it from mistreatment or abandonment.
Once the horses are rehabilitated, they graduate. Two horses have graduated this year; one returned to its owners, who rescued it but had been unable to help it, and the other became a riding horse.
Mr Emonson, who will remain on the charity’s board and continue to help with counselling, said Horses for Hope had doubled its capacity in the past two years and the waiting list had grown longer.
He went from being the sole worker at its inception to working in a team of six, who all agree that mental health needs to be approached differently in this modern post-pandemic world.
“Mental health is so important and we have to step up; one in five have a need for services like this,” Ms Hider, who has a background in health and nursing, said.
“It’s a powerful experience. There’s vulnerability needed to go near these big animals and asking how do I help heal them and come away feeling good, too?
“It’s a beautiful balance between animal kindness and human kindness.”
While clients pay a fee for therapy sessions, that income doesn’t cover the operational costs of running and developing the organisation and funding is sporadic, coming from occasional grants and fluctuating donations.
“We welcome the opportunity for new partners,” Ms Hider said.
“It’s difficult for staff to be across doing the work they’re doing as well as fundraising and cooking sausage sizzles and so on.”
When Ms McCarty visited the property to make the vacuum donation, she was given a brief taste of the horse work the charity provides its clients.
After just a few minutes in the yard with Rain, an eight-year-old horse who has been in therapy at the property for about three years, Ms McCarty said she felt relaxed.
“Just being in there and thinking about someone else’s needs, having to show up for them,” she said.
“I’m so relaxed, seriously, I felt loved and I feel calm.”
She spontaneously upped her donation on the spot, offering dispensers, paper towel and cleaning products for the restroom in the farm’s administration building.
“If you align with the work we do, please consider partnerships and donating,” Ms Hider said.
“We can’t grow much further without support and backing.
“It’s life helping life.”
∎ For more information on Horses for Hope or to donate, visit the website.
Senior journalist