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Southlands
Riding Club Tel:
(604) 263-4817 |
Southlands
Country Fair Summer Riding Program Proceeds from the Kids' Games at the Southlands Country Fair go towards a therapeutic Summer Riding Program for kids referred by the Alderwood Family Development Centre. The Kids Helping Kids Foundation matches the dollars raised by the games at the Country Fair, and each year a growing number of children benefits from this unique experience. The Alderwood Family Development Centre, an intensive therapeutic day treatment program for children, ages six to twelve and their families, is a collaborative program led by the Children's Foundation, a non profit agency with over fifty years of serving the most vulnerable children and their families. Many of the attending children and families have experienced serious trauma, been exposed to serious abuse and neglect, have been exposed to domestic violence and abuse or suffer the effects of poverty and prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol. In collaboration with the Ministry of Children and Families, Coastal Health and the Vancouver School Board, Alderwood Family Development Center provides intensive family based services including therapy, counseling, psychiatric, psychological and educational services to vulnerable, high risk children and their families. In the Spring of 2008 this therapeutic riding program to benefit children at Alderwood began in Southlands. It proved to be an extremely successful program and the benefits of the program to the children exceeded all expectations. "As
a Child and Family Therapist and now Program Director of Alderwood,
I keep informed of the practices and interventions which demonstrate
meaningfulness to the learning and change process required for the
children and their families involved in our program. Never in my
ten years as a health care professional and human service worker
had I witnesses such improvements occurring as quickly as through
these therapeutic riding lessons. I am truly impressed and humbled
by the power of the healing relationship built between horse and
child and the amazing benefits and rewards it provides" -
Lisa Lowe, Program Director, Alderwood Family Development Centre.
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