Our needs are met by your donations and community sponsorships. As a new organization, your donations are even more important to ensure we have a strong foundation to grow from. In 2022, we saw a need to participate in trauma healing in Chattanooga.

$600 = sponsor 1 participant [one time donation]

$50/month = 1 participant a year

$25/month = 1 participant every two years.

Other donations and fundraising efforts help alleviate costs for our overhead, and that adds up to more participants’ wholeness and healing.

Our yearly budget includes cost of training and certification, reimbursements for our therapists, and facilitators, as well as this website, fundraising efforts, marketing and communication, accounting, and our after-care programs.

All our board members and leadership teams consist of individuals volunteering their time and working in unpaid positions. Ideally many of the above costs would be donated through volunteer hours and in-kind donations. Our partner stables graciously provide horses for our program and their care.

Our volunteers help us to help those in need. The more help we receive, the more our community engages and learns about the Shalom Story, the more trauma healing can be available for those in need.

We welcome prayer warriors, administrators, photographer, videographer, storyteller, social media and marketing maven, designer, fundraising support, hosts, event planners, babysitters, errand go-getters, hands-on-helpers, muckers + rakers, veterinary technicians, and donors, and plenty more Kingdom workers.

If you are interested in helping us restore wholeness in Chattanooga, please email us at info@theshalomstory.com

Each person is paired with a certified equine-assisted facilitator along with an equine-assisted psychotherapist, who is a licensed therapist. Our program provides the participant or family with 6-8 individual sessions.

Our equine-assisted facilitators and therapists are paid volunteers, and receive $50/session. The cost to sponsor one participate averages $600.

Our costs to provide certification for licensed therapists and interested facilitators is approximately $1000-$1200 and we are currently looking for more volunteers and partnerships. If you are interested, please email us at info@theshalomstory.com

For refugees, equine therapy is a shelter in the storm of trauma, fostering self-confidence and respect, and, bit by bit, healing can begin. — Maddey Bussmann, from the Borgen Project.

Through interaction with horses, veterans can relearn to recognize feelings, regulate emotions and build trust—tools to succeed with family, work, and relationships. — Dr. Prudence Fisher, principal investigator of the Man O’ War Project

Horses are ideal for women healing from domestic violence—they regain confidence, learn to be assertive, and protect personal boundaries—leading to the changes needed to thrive in communities with their children. —Janet Froeschle, Empowering Abused Women Through Equine Assisted Career Therapy

Many of us, first responders, face tragedy, violence, disasters, heartache, and trauma in our working lives. Horses seem to be able to look directly into your soul, they see and feel your pain and emotions shared one participant. — Nelson, Dossett and Walker, Equine-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder among first responders.

Our goal is to provide free access to equine assisted therapy to those suffering with the effects of unresolved trauma.

Trauma is the emotional response to a horrific life events, such as accidents, domestic abuse, violence, rape, war, or natural disaster. After the event, shock and denial are typical. Long-term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.

Trauma also includes suicide, unemployment, continual mental health crisis, family life disrupted, divorce, drug abuse/self-medicating…all for something that happened to them or they witnessed. For adults this affects their parenting, job status, ability to be a functional citizen. It affects the community as a whole and programs like this can help them process and heal to get back to the life they once knew.

If you know someone like this, and is considered a part of a vulnerable community, please refer them to our program. Ask how you and friends can sponsor them.

In Equestrian Therapy, horses join us in the journey toward healing and wholeness. Authentic equine-assisted work honors and integrates natural horse and herd behavior as a model for human mental and emotional health.

Equine-assisted learning and therapy uses the intuitive nature of horses to begin the healing process, a journey back to wholeness. Horses connect to humans allowing therapy to step outside the box, allowing cultural barriers, and stigmas to be overcome.