The Peace Enhancement Program At The Gentle Barn

 As our Peace Enhancement Program’s 2016/2017 season comes to a close I am reflecting on the kids who have come and gone this year and those who have stuck through the entire program.
The younger kids from South Central Los Angeles who come with the LAPD visit us all year long. They get dirty in our garden digging their hands in the soil; they learn where nourishment comes from and how to grow food. They help us groom and walk our horses, teaching them leadership skills and finding themselves in our horse’s stories. We hike at Vazquez Rocks together learning about the resilience in nature and the resilience in ourselves. These kids come from a life where they have to grow up too quickly, some of them raising themselves and in their time with us they get to be kids again, they get to run as fast as they can, play games, and experience the world through new eyes.
Some kids visit us through group homes and probation camps so they may only visit once or twice before they move on. Those kids stay with me the most. We meet them and fall in love with them, sometimes they come to us defensive with their hearts boarded up. We give them our all, softening them with cows hugs, teaching them bravery with the horses, noticing their kindness and generosity in the barnyard, and talking to their souls at the wishing well where they leave their dreams and their truths. I see hope in their eyes when they leave us with big goodbye hugs and they leave me with hope in exchange. The hope they give me is for their heart, that their time with us has left an impression. I hope that in times of darkness in their lives they remember our animals and their time at The Gentle Barn, their cow hugs and their animal friends, I hope that in these moments they see there is so much light.
To support our Peace Enhancement Program and sponsor one of the groups that come to visit go to our website: www.gentlebarn.org/donate.