HAMILTON COUNTY — At Harmony IN Horses there is a focus on healing and connection. The organization serves kids who have experienced trauma in foster care or through adoption.
It's a growing mission in the town of Sheridan in Hamilton County that is already making an impact on Hoosier kids with equine assisted learning.
"It's helped me get to school, because for a couple years I missed going to school due to mental problems," 15-year-old Savannah Mills said. "I really want to graduate and become something. It's helped me, and I think it's helped my sister too."
"We were trying to look for solutions to solve their emotional upsets and issues that they have," Paula Fine, Savannah's Grandma said. "It changed the whole atmosphere in the house."
Working with youth who have trauma has always been a passion for founder Lisa Condes.
"I feel lucky, and I have gratitude when I'm able to sit back and bear witness to these young people... spending time with these horses and watching them be able to relax and learn to trust," Condes said.
Harmony IN Horses credits a community assistance grant from Junior League of Indianapolis for helping the organization get started.
"It's been transformative for our program. It really kicked it off the ground. We're pretty new. We actually just celebrated our second anniversary this month," Harmony IN Horses board member Lori LeRoy said.
The next round of Junior League community assistance grants are now open for organizations working in foster and kinship care.
"We found there is a significant need. We're still discovering organizations doing this work. The need that's out there and the money available is not equal," Sarah Balana Molter, VP of Grants for Junior League of Indianapolis said.
Junior League is looking for non-profits in Marion and surrounding counties to apply by the deadline on Monday September 16th.
"We really want to uplift the work that you're doing and make an impact on the community. As a nonprofit, we recognize that funding is limited, so we just want to know this opportunity is available," Balana Molter said.
Helping kids on her farm wasn't the original plan for the property.
"So my husband and I bought this property to start a program to gentle wild mustangs and be able to get how have them be adopted out," Condes said.
But that all changed one day when she was sitting with her horse Mojo. After a couple of months in her care, he was still afraid of her.
"He was separated from his family, separated from everything he knew, everything that was safe," Condes said.
Suddenly - she recalls Mojo looking at her and there was a connection.
"I thought, oh my gosh, you are exactly like so many of the youth that I've worked with, and the amount of power and how good I felt after Mojo connected with me. I thought, I can't keep this to myself," Condes said.
One of the biggest goals at Harmony IN Horses is to break the cycle of foster care for the youth they serve
"They've opened their farm up to the possibility of impacting these lives, breaking that cycle of foster care, and really empowering these kids to grow up and live normal, healthy lives and have healthy relationships," LeRoy said.
