Building lives filled with dreams, and the power to make dreams come true is the Dreampower Horsemanship mission statement. All the individuals associated with DreamPower - program participants, staff, board, donors and volunteers - work together to support this mission. For a young person in a residential treatment center that dream might be getting adopted into a loving family. For an addicted teen the dream might be addressing drug and alcohol dependence in order to gain admission to college.  For a fearful adult that dream might be learning how to ride a horse without anxiety. At DreamPower over the past several years we've seen these dreams, and others, come true due to love, dedication and mutual support. Sometimes experiencing just a piece of a dream is enough to make a difference in a person's life. In 2009, DreamPower provided therapeutic riding services to 302 clients in 2009. 184 at risk, low income children and teens received equine-facilitated services paid for by donations.

Working with horses provides a wonderful opportunity to engage in therapeutic activities outside of a traditional therapeutic environment. Reaching for a ball while seated on a calm horse can help make physical activity fun for a disabled child.  Learning to halter a horse in an open pasture can make an urban teen who has issues listening to authority figures pay attention.  Seeing how a horse responds to body movements and tone of voice can help reinforce the power of calm, assertive behavior over a tendency toward aggressive or anxious engagements. And of course it opens the heart when a person of any age or ability begins to feel the mutual respect that occurs when a horse and person come to know and trust and communicate with each other, whether in the saddle or on the ground. 

We hope you will go on to explore the qualifications of our staff members and our board, and read about the dedication of our donors and volunteers.  But the most important thing about us, and the thing that joins us all together at DreamPower, comes from our sharing in the power of working to make dreams come true.

The DreamPower Foundation is a 501C(3) non-profit organization.