We are delighted to announce that Stepney City Farm & Furry Tales are recruiting for a part-time Session Facilitator to run our outreach programme with elders in 5 Tower Hamlets’ residential care settings. The successful candidate will be required to work 1 day a week for 12 months and will be responsible for planning and delivering outreach sessions with small animals (guinea pigs, rabbits and bantam hens) to older adults aged 60+, including those living with dementia.

The successful candidate will be empathic, self-aware and have an inclusive approach, as well as experience of residential care settings and an understanding of ageing and dementia. This is an exciting position for someone who wants to further existing experience of working creatively with older people and gain deeper understanding of animal-assisted interventions, with the opportunity to shape this project as it grows.

This post is now closed. Thank you to all those who applied.

This year our Project Manager Ione completed a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship, having travelled to the USA, Israel and Palestine to investigate the delivery and impact of animal-assisted interventions and their potential for use in the UK. In April her report was published on the WCMT website and she has since been sharing it with a network of health care and VCS organisations.

The report, Elders’ Care and Animals: Developing a Sustainable Model for Change, is available here and includes;

• An overview of AAI as it currently stands based upon the 32 projects visited – What is it? How does it work? What are the benefits?
• A selection of four case studies that demonstrate the evidence for findings and showcase best practice in the field
• Key findings regarding AAI in residential care; impact and implementation
• Recommendations for the UK
• Further reading and a directory of the projects and contacts visited

If you would be interested in finding out more or receiving a bespoke workshop or presentation, please contact us.

Join us at Stepney City Farm on Monday 13th June, 10:00-15:00 for our first Green Care Peer Learning event, supported by LEEF – London’s Environmental Educators Forum.

The day is aimed at anyone with an interest in green care – perhaps you have knowledge of a particular user group and their needs, you may be an expert in seed sowing, or just keen to see more non-human life in your organisation… Whether you are a provider of care or part of a project delivering animal or nature-based activities, this is an opportunity to meet and share experiences and ideas.

Project Manager of Furry Tales, Ione will be sharing findings from her recent Churchill Fellowship, with case studies of animal-assisted projects she visited in the USA and Israel. This will be followed by two sharing circles, one centred around animal-assisted or nature-based activity ideas and one around collaboration with the NHS. Please come with some thoughts or ideas for these, you do not necessarily need to have direct experience of either but at least a question or insight to offer.

The event is free but booking is essential. Further information can be found on the Green Care Peer Learning flyer.

One of our much loved Furry Tales Club regulars and passionate wordsmith, Hetty Goodman, recently wrote us this beautiful poem about her experience of Stepney City Farm. We are very grateful to Hetty for sharing her words and her time with us.

To the Staff and Volunteers

Thank you Stepney City Farm
for all your help and dedication
Stroking rabbits is my balm
Better than medication

I am wheelchair bound
and love to see
Your wealth
of animation

From ducks to geese
and baby chicks
Donkeys, goats
and guinea pigs

I haven’t seen
what you have grown
The wonderful produce
from seeds you’ve sown

The city children
from local schools
Will learn so much
and man the tools

Let them dig the soil
and plant the seeds
They all will grow
as tall as reeds

The Farm is there
for young and old
Nature’s story
That must be told

I wish you luck
in all you do
May the farm prosper
because of you

We first met Irene through an outreach session we delivered to Age UK a few years ago. She took a huge interest in the animals and told us she’d grown up on a farm in Surrey. When we hosted the Furry Tales Club taster session and focus group we were keen to have her join us. She told us she loved coming to Stepney City Farm, to be closer to animals and to meet other people. She soon became a regular and has attended over ten sessions. Even when it’s been cold and rainy, Irene still comes on her scooter and helps us health-check the rabbits, gives us gardening tips and entertains us with the most incredible stories about her childhood. She brings in photos of her with various animals when she was younger, of her brother and his prize-winning pig, and we display them on our club board next to more recent photos of her.

She’s brought along three different friends over the course of the project and her current friend and helper, Charlie, comes with her on Mondays even when it’s his only day off. He says that he really enjoys spending time with the small animals and being out on the Farm. Irene can tell you the exact gestation period of a pig, she can tell you how to prevent caterpillars from eating your plants and she can regale you with hilarious (if not for the fainthearted) stories of traditional farming techniques. She says her favourite thing about Furry Tales Club is ‘socialising and meeting people, sharing my knowledge of the animals’ and we feel very lucky to have her.

Working as a scientist in hospitals, it is often easy to reduce patients to a date of birth and a list of symptoms. The only interaction you have is to discuss treatment options and outcomes. Furry Tales reminds me that behind the medication is an individual. A person who has experienced things and has learnt things that I may never get the opportunity to know. It reminds me to look past the diagnosis and to see people not as patients but as someone’s friend and someone’s family. At the start of sessions, particularly with dementia patients, there is a sense of unease and longing for home, but an hour later there is an overwhelming feeling of peace and safety. To see lucid moments, or a slight smile, really shows how important Furry Tales is. I never knew animals could produce such an amazing response.

Recently, a care home resident asked me by chance what I did for a living. I explained I was a scientist and discussed my area of expertise. It turns out he was once a professor of Biophysics and studied the same subject as me. What followed was one of the most intellectually stimulating conversations I have had in a long time. But what struck me to my core was when he discussed how involving research was and how time can pass by without you realising. He stopped being a stroke victim and became an intellectual peer and interesting man. I then realised that Furry Tales was not just important to me because I could help others, but because it helped me. It allows me time to reflect on my life and what I want to achieve. As a result, I work harder at work to find a cure, but also make sure I take time out for me and my friends.

Post by Aria Butterwick

I had never set foot in a prison before. As I stepped into Jefferson City Correctional Center, accompanied by ReCHAI’s powerhouse Dr Rebecca Johnson, to visit their animal-assisted prison program, I was understandably nervous. As with all genius ideas, Puppies for Parole is beautifully simple: team up offenders with rescue dogs and allow them to rehabilitate each other. Offenders take on 24/7 responsibility for a rescue dog, training them in basic obedience skills and socialising them to a point where they are ready to be adopted out into the community. I was lucky enough to be there when a Puppies for Parole graduation ceremony was taking place. With families coming to pick up their newly adopted dogs, offenders presenting their pups and Missouri Department of Corrections’ staff talking about the programme, it was the perfect opportunity for me to see how it works. I expected to be moved. I did not expect to spend the following days, weeks and even months questioning all that I thought I knew about human behaviour, welfare and justice. In the months that have followed my visit, I have repeatedly tried and failed to write up what I saw, felt and thought. As with so many animal-assisted intervention programs, it really has to be witnessed to be fully understood. Those of us who work with animals know the power they have to take us to a deeper part of our selves. There is a place that exists in each of us that cannot necessarily be reached with words. Animals lead us there and open up a more instinctive mode of communication, one that we all have but sadly have perhaps learnt to ignore or forget.

At J-Triple-C (as it’s referred to by Dr Johnson and her team), I witnessed the effects that a furry four-legged team has had on an entire prison ward and its surrounding community. I listened to one man speak passionately and eloquently of his experience as an offender enrolled on the program. He remembered his own past, moving from foster home to foster home, feeling disenchanted, frustrated and abandoned. He noted the connection with these dogs, also abandoned, and spoke with pride of his role in enabling them to find stable and loving homes. He spoke of taking responsibility for a life and the rewards that come when you put the needs of another being before yourself. He shared with us the lessons he has learnt about compromise, respect and the virtues of commitment and patience. I felt such privilege at hearing this man’s story and was reminded of the huge importance of seeing the person behind the label. For these men do carry with them a label. Some of them will never be out in a community again. They will never feel the grass under their feet with hours stretched in front of them with nothing to do and nowhere in particular to go, with freedom of choice and movement. Is this fair? I don’t know.

I do know that the presence of the dogs allowed us to have these conversations, to ask these questions whilst remaining grounded in reality. They softened the space, a space which is harsh and intimidating and yet holds and influences the lives of some 2000 men. With wagging tails and endless energy, the dogs bring laughter and comfort into a hostile environment. They invite us to focus on the here and now, to leave ego and judgment behind. For the dogs, the staff, offenders, researchers and trainers are one and the same – awkward two-legged beings with interesting smells and looming faces. For us humans, the dogs are pure joy, allowing us to come into our senses and engage with one another, animal to animal.

‘For the vast majority of offenders it brings a sense of caring about something other than ourselves. We have witnessed the smiles on the faces of some of the most hardened men as they watch the dogs play or even approach one of them for a rub on the head or belly. Seeing one of the crabbiest old men in here, sit on the yard and just grin as he pets one of the dogs, shows how sometimes it’s the simplest things that tame a beast.’
– James Gee, JCCC Offender and Puppies for Parole Handler

My Churchill Fellowship took me to six states in the USA in April and May this year. In December I will be visiting Israel for Part 2 of my continuing research into best practice in animal-assisted intervention projects. I will be publishing a report with my findings later this year.

Post by Ione Maria Rojas

For the third week of my fellowship I travelled to Massachusetts to shadow a series of visits with animals to different care facilities, organised by PetPals, The Nature Connection and the Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley. The sheer range of of Animal Assisted Activities on offer can be seen in the table above.

Not surprisingly, each session had a unique style and atmosphere. With each one, I noticed a different impact on the participants, sometimes more related to the experience of watching and handling the animal, other times to the social interaction with another human. I became aware of my personal response to each visit, what I felt was ‘ok’ or ‘not ok’, what I thought was or wasn’t effective. Though I questioned whether these responses were driven by my own bias, there was one thought I kept coming back to; how the quality of attention brought to the session by the facilitator affects the depth of the interaction, not only human to animal, but also human to human.

Regardless of length, species or set-up, the visits that really moved me were the ones were the facilitator was really paying attention to the participants, the animal and the space in-between. In some of the sessions this attention wasn’t quite as focused, or was focused mainly on the animal. I watched a five-minute one-to-one in a resident’s room at a nursing home where the dog was led in, introduced by name, and asked to do a trick. After the trick the resident was invited to pet the dog for a moment, before the team moved on to the next room. The interaction between volunteer and resident was minimal. I was surprised that the volunteer did not even crouch to speak to the resident, who was in a wheelchair, but stayed by the door, speaking from a high-up distance. The relationship appeared to be one of audience and performer. In contrast, I sat in on another session where the volunteer placed herself by the side of the residents, making consistent eye contact, listening intently and allowing the resident to lead the conversation and focus of the session. Sometimes the animals were in the foreground as residents asked questions about behaviour and habits, other times the animals faded into the background as the residents began to tell their own stories. In these moments, there seemed to be a greater connection between facilitator, participant and animal, the relationship appeared to be one of equals enjoying a shared experience together. These moments felt less forced.

I realise this interpretation is a subjective one and neither style of facilitation is right or wrong, but each approach has its own benefits and we must know what these are if we are to identify the appropriate type of AAA for our participants. I tend to be fascinated and excited by AAA that leads to a deeper human connection, yet through this research I have been shown that there is also much to offer from AAA that serves more as light entertainment, a distraction from the everyday. This freedom is both the blessing and the curse of AAA. It provides an opportunity for anyone to do this kind of work, opening up the field for a variety of approaches. It means that some people come into this work through a love of animals, perhaps a love of their own animal, and wanting to share that with others. Other people come into it through a love of humans, and wanting to deepen that connection through being alongside animals and nature.

In a field where there are so many variables, it can be difficult to establish protocol across the board. As an AAA provider, the point is to know exactly what type of intervention we are offering, so we can responsibly train individuals and animals to help us provide this, continuously assess the impact of our work and ensure we are always meeting high standards.

Throughout my Churchill Fellowship I became increasingly aware of how much I was trying to fit in. I wanted to make the most of my time in the States and visit as many individuals and organisations as I could. I certainly did but I started to feel information overload as the weeks passed. It is only now, back in the UK, that I return to my weekly round-up. I will be visiting Israel for Part 2 of my fellowship in October and will produce my final report by the end of 2015.

Post by Ione Maria Rojas

As I’m seeing from all the wild and wonderful projects I’ve been visiting on my Churchill Fellowship, there are many types of Animal Assisted Intervention on offer out there. For those new to the field the problem can often be understanding the different terms used to describe them. Luckily, IAHAIO (International Assosiation of Human-Animal Interaction Organisations) are working for collaboration and clarity across the board and it is their definitions that I refer to in my research and that Furry Tales adheres to.

Key definitions from their 2014 White Paper are quoted below, whilst the paper and guidelines in full can be found here, on IAHAIO’S website.

“ANIMAL ASSISTED INTERVENTION (AAI)

An Animal Assisted Intervention is a goal oriented and structured intervention that intentionally includes or incorporates animals in health, education and human service (e.g., social work) for the purpose of therapeutic gains in humans. It involves people with knowledge of the people and animals involved. Animal assisted interventions incorporate human-animal teams in formal human service such as Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT), Animal Assisted Education (AAE) or under certain conditions Animal Assisted Activity (AAA).

 

• ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY (AAT): Animal Assisted Therapy is a goal oriented, planned and structured therapeutic intervention directed and/or delivered by health, education and human service professionals. Intervention progress is measured and included in professional documentation. AAT is delivered and/or directed by a formally trained (with active licensure, degree or equivalent) professional with expertise within the scope of the professionals’ practice. AAT focuses on enhancing physical, cognitive, behavioral and/or socio-emotional functioning of the particular human recipient.

 

• ANIMAL ASSISTED EDUCATION (OR ANIMAL ASSISTED PEDAGOGY): Animal Assisted Education (AAE) is a goal oriented, planned and structured intervention directed and/or delivered by educational and related service professional. AAE is conducted by qualified (with degree) general and special education teacher. Regular education teachers who conduct AAE must have knowledge of the animals involved. An example of AAE delivered by a regular education teacher is an educational visit that promotes responsible pet ownership. AAE, when done by special (remedial) education teachers is also considered therapeutic and a goal oriented intervention. The focus of the activities is on academic goals, pro- social skills and cognitive functioning. The student’s progress is measured and documented. An example of AAE delivered by a special education teacher is a dog-assisted reading program.

 

• ANIMAL ASSISTED ACTIVITY (AAA): AAA is a planned and goal oriented informal interaction and visitation conducted by the human-animal team for motivational, educational and recreational purposes. Human-animal teams must have received at least introductory training, preparation and assessment to participate in informal visitations. Human-animal teams who provide AAA may also work formally and directly with a healthcare, educator and/or human service provider on specific documentable goals. In this case they are participating in AAT or AAE that is conducted by a specialist in his/her profession. Examples of AAA include animal assisted crisis response that focuses on providing comfort and support for trauma, crisis and disaster survivors, and visiting companion animals for ‘meet and greet’ activities with residents in nursing homes.”

Post by Ione Maria Rojas