LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Boys and Girls Haven has provided a home for some of Kentucky’s most vulnerable kids for the last 70 years. Now, they’re giving others the chance to get a look inside their program.
From guinea pigs to a donkey and everything in between, Nick Brewer, marketing manager and graphic designer for Boys and Girls Haven, said they use these animals as a way to help children on their healing journey.
What You Need To Know
- Boys and Girls Haven is a Louisville-based non-profit child care agency
- A silent auction will benefit the animals in the animal assisted therapy program
- The highest bidder from each animal will experience a full day inside the animal assisted therapy program
- Boys and Girls Haven has provided a home for children for the last 70 years
“When you experience trauma it can be very difficult to trust people and learn to trust people again, and especially to trust an adult. So the idea then is that it can be easier to trust an animal first. So we use those animals to teach them how to trust and form these relationships and attachments again,” Brewer said.
The Boys and Girls Haven is a Louisville-based non-profit child care agency dedicated to providing a home for at-risk foster children.
The shelter is hosting a silent auction where you can virtually adopt an animal. The highest bidder on each animal will get to experience a day inside the animal assisted therapy program to better understand how they restore connections.
“Those same skills translate into directly learning how to trust people," Brewer said. “When you form healthy attachments and relationships, that's why animal therapy works in so many different places because they're so comforting, people are relaxed by animals typically.”
The shelter is made up of five programs that include in-home foster care, residential foster care, transitional living, independence readiness and Haven family services.
The ultimate goal of Boys and Girls Haven is to support not only the animals, but to create a safe and stable therapeutic environment for the children.
“The Boys and Girls Haven at the end of the day wants to serve as many kids as possible and with the best outcomes possible. By best outcomes I mean treat their trauma so they are able to use coping skills and be functioning members of their schools, their homes and society if they go back to independent living,” Brewer said.
All of the proceeds from the auction go to the needs of the animals in the program. You can find more information or make donations online.