The Forget Me Not Farm’s flagship program nurtures relationships between children, animals and gardens. Since its inception in 1992, Forget Me Not Farm has helped thousands of at-risk children and youth reduce symptoms of trauma and break the cycle of abuse.
The Farm offers animal-assisted and horticultural therapeutic activities that provide a haven for children, animals, and plants to interact, bond, learn, and heal. The farm serves a variety of social service agencies that bring groups of children to the farm weekly for hour-long sessions.
Forget Me Not Children’s Services offers a vocational training and mentoring program for at-risk youth ages 14 – 18 years of age. Often these are children who have participated in the Forget Me Not Farm’s therapeutic program, however in 2016 the vocational program opened up to any at-risk teen in need of mentoring within the community.
In the mentoring program, teens are given the opportunity to learn real-life skills they can carry on and apply as they enter the workforce. Youth hone their work-ethic and communication skills while working along-side a safe and caring adult to learn and master skills related to animal, farm or horticulture care.
The essence of the mentoring program is to serve the dual purpose of job training and providing healthy positive relationships with an adult mentor. The power of a positive role model in a child’s life cannot be underestimated, and for many of our matches the relationship is one of mutual learning, growth, and respect that can last for years.