Thera-Pony C.I.C is a small social enterprise in Perth and Kinross. We facilitate positive change for the mental wellbeing of children and young people. We have a small centre that offers
- equine facilitated learning,
- equine interaction programmes,
- equine therapy and
- nature-based activities
We work w
ith individuals, school groups, school referrals, those who are socially isolated or living in rural communities, children and young people with additional support needs and the elderly or disabled in residential homes.
We are a team of 2 humans and 9 Equines with huge dreams - we reinvest our income to support, grow and develop our projects.
At the moment we have 2 main programmes that are currently running:
- Ponies Helping People: Our flagship programme, delivering services to schools and individuals using a range of activities such as movement and mindfulness in the equine or nature environment and equine interactions and activities
- Stable Days: This is a stem from our flagship programme, and is specifically designed for care experienced young people
as well as these, we have 1 project that is at the bare beginning:
- Thera-Van: we were donated an old caravan ready for the skip. With hard work and TLC we stripped it back and are in the middle of decorating it to become an office and shared area for staff and others to use as a tea/break room. We also plan on conducting our client intake here
We have plans for 2 additional projects which are still in the planning:
- Thera-Patch: a veg patch for our young people and groups to grow fruit and veg and socialise and share,
- Adventure Hut: our proposed outdoor cover space, funds depending
Before lockdown, we were saving every spare penny we had to fund the build of a dedicated covered space for our young people to conduct nature-based activities at our outdoor centre, this would be a warm dry area where the children would come to do craft, have safety talks and warm up in the winter months.
When lockdown hit, we were forced to close our doors like many others, we had no more income and our bills were piling up, we made the decision to use the project savings to care for our animals and keep the lights on! We still had feed to buy, rent to pay as well as vet and farrier bills. We were lucky to make it through and still be here to tell the tale but, unfortunately by using our savings we had created a major set back in our programmes progress!
without out hut, we can't run the majority of our programmes, we remain a seasonal business as we have no dry, warm areas for our visitors to sit or do craft. We were so close at reaching a major milestone for our centre, to keep it viable and without a dedicated space and reduced projects/programmes, we won't generate enough income to survive much longer.
Please help us #saveouradventurehut