We’ve tallied our votes and we’re donating $3,030 to the following charities….

The People For Pets Giving Circle had a tie, and we’ll divide our donation equally between the Animal Rescue of the Rockies and Kindness Ranch 

Animal Rescue of the Rockies is a 100% foster based rescue, because they believe that foster homes make it easier for animals to be adopted. Animals are less stressed and more adapted to a home environment. And since ARR takes the pet back if the adoption doesn’t work out, they like to get it right the first time. Unlike most rescues, they have a lot of success with cats and actually adopt out more cats than dogs. In 2018, they found permanent homes for 265 dogs and 1,248 cats. Since founding in 2003, they’ve placed more than 10,000 dogs and cats.

Kindness Ranch is located on a 1,000 acre ranch in Hartville, WY. They take in all kinds of research animals including dogs, cats, horses, pigs and sheep. They work to rehabilitate dogs and cats in a home-like environment with round-the-clock care to help them adjust to their new lives. In many cases when research dogs come to Kindness Ranch, they have never played with another dog or toys, experienced the outdoors, touched grass, been on a walk and they are not potty trained. Most of the animals that come to Kindness Ranch are adopted to their fur-ever homes to lead happy, fulfilling lives as a family pet. Animals who are too debilitated, old or ill to be adopted can remain on the ranch to live out their days, surrounded by caretakers and volunteers who put the animals’ well-being first. Since it was founded in 2006, Kindness Ranch has provided sanctuary to 1,162 Animals.

The Poverty Busters Giving circle vote to donate to The Gathering Place.

Located in Denver, CO, The Gathering Place is the only daytime drop-in center in metropolitan Denver that serves women, their children, and transgender individuals who are experiencing poverty, many of whom are also experiencing homelessness. Their 28,800 square foot building was specifically designed to be a safe refuge and provides adequate space for their programs and service to an average of 270 women and children a day. 41% of people who use their services have a disability or other significant health condition that impacts their life day-to-day. 33% have experienced some form of abuse. 52% are experiencing homelessness; of those, 34% rely on shelters or motel vouchers; 25% temporarily stay with friends or family; and, 20% make a home in their car. 

The Veterans Giving Circle will be donating to the Warriors Heart Foundation

Warriors Heart® provides private treatment to adult men and women who are seeking inpatient treatment for chemical dependency, alcohol abuse, and co-occurring psychological disorders relating to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) or the psychological effects of MTBI (mild traumatic brain injury). They are a privately funded treatment center located in San Antonio, and they only treat active military, veterans, firefighters, police, and EMTs.

The Warriors Heart Foundation was started to help subsidize their treatment expenses at the Warrior Heart facility. Currently the Veterans Administration (VA) only covers a small portion of private treatment and this care is primarily done in psychiatric hospitals. In comparison, Warriors Heart treats the “whole body”, including chemical dependencies, PTSD and other mild co-occurring disorders. Services include detox, inpatient residential treatment services, intensive outpatient, one-on-one therapy, sober living facilities, trained emotional support animals. They recently appeared on The Today Show, and you can watch their segment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOBsq6_0ZDo.

It’s our second donation of 2018. Here’s a little bit about the 3 charities we chose. P.S. If you want a donation team to help you find the best charities to support, join a giving circle, today!

People for Pets Giving Circle
Red Rover, located in Sacremento, CA, helps animals who are in crisis situations due to disasters, neglect, illness or domestic violence. For people dealing with domestic violence, Red Rover’s offsets the cost of temporary pet boarding while a client is in a domestic violence shelter and helps create more pet-friendly emergency shelter options for survivors of domestic violence.

When a disaster hits, they set up and operate temporary shelters when large numbers of animals are affected by storms, fires, floods, or other emergencies or when they’re rescued from large-scale cruelty situations such as puppy mills and hoarding cases.

And they have a childhood education program teaching empathy while at the same time helping students make responsible decisions and become more aware of themselves and their communities.

Poverty Busters
Over the past several years, research has revealed the profound and long lasting impact of childhood trauma. What makes children good learners is also what makes them especially sensitive to events such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse either to themselves or to other family members; drug abuse in the home; the incarceration of a family member; family members’ depression or other mental illness; neglect; and food insecurity. The risk factors have been compiled into the Adverse Childhood Experiences test, and high scores correlate to a wide range of emotional, financial, physical, and mental health problems as adults.

The good news is that early interventions can build resilience in kids so that they can cope with these early challenges and grow up to be healthier, happier adults. That’s exactly what this charity aims to do.

Hampton Healthy Family Partnerships is a public donation organization that supplements the city of Hampton, Virginia’s Department of Healthy Families. Founded 25 years ago, they serve children, youth, and families through a variety of free and/or low cost programs designed to help strengthen families and promote school readiness.

Veterans Giving Circle
The Semper Fi Fund provides financial assistance and lifetime support to post-9/11 combat wounded, critically ill and catastrophically injured service members and their families. They commit to life-long support once a veteran enters their world. They run 3 main programs.

Service Member and Family Support Program
Includes services like financial support, caregiver support & retreats, housing assistance, kids camp, transportation assistance, canine program, specialized & adaptive equipment, horsemanship program.

Transition Program
Includes services like education & career assistance; veteran & unit reunions; Veteran 2 Veteran Support (V2V); Semper Fi Fund Odyssey Retreat which is a six-day, holistic transition assistance program for injured and critically ill service members which helps them transition into civilian life by learning about life planning skills, establishing goals, employment resources, and by learning to balance mental, emotional, physical and spiritual components; and the Semper Fi Fund Apprenticeship Program which assists service members with a 70% or greater disability rating find meaningful trades, careers and small business opportunities through short-term vocational education and apprenticeships.

Integrative Wellness
Includes services like PTSD and TBI support; NeuroFitness which is neurofeedback training to help restore cognitive function, improve memory, manage pain and assist with other stress-related issues; High-Tech Medical Devices which provides grants for specialized equipment such Alpha-Stim, AVE, Emwaves, Irlen glasses, and Celluma; Post-Traumatic Growth video resources; holistic health solutions which provides grants for costs associated with therapy and counseling not covered by military benefits; counseling; a sports program where team members participate in various athletic clinics and competitions around the country to build community, raise awareness, and inspire fellow service members on their own road to recovery.

We just completed our first quarterly donation of 2018, and I wanted to share with you the 3 charities we chose– in case you might want to support them, too.

Street Dog Coalition

The People for Pets Giving Circle chose the Street Dog Coalition, because as many as 10%-25% of people experiencing homelessness have pets. To have a pet as a homeless person often means giving up access to shelters and transportation. But the bond between a homeless person and their pet can be exceptionally strong as this person has very little consistency, companionship, and love outside of their relationship with their pet. Many will feed their pet before they feed themselves.

Street Dog Coalition provides free medical care and other services to pets of the homeless. Through pop up clinics, they give rabies shots, parvovirus and distemper, deworming pills, and vouchers to free spay/neuter services.

Based out of Fort Collins, they are regularly contacted by other veterinarians who want to open chapters in their area. They have teams in Fort Collins, Denver, and Colorado Springs each providing about 1 clinic per week and helping about 500 pets a year. Chapters through the country serve another 500 pets per year.

Homeless Gear

The Poverty Buster Giving Circle chose Homeless Gear, because if you’ve spent any time here in Northern Colorado, you know that the number of people experiencing homelessness is drastically increasing. Based out of Fort Collins, Colorado, Homeless Gear operates a ‘family’ of six programs that provides a continuum (or pathway) of services to individuals and families who are homeless or — in some cases — at risk of becoming homeless.

Here are just a few of the programs the operate:

The Distribution Program provides life-sustaining supplies. Since 2008, they’ve distributed $8.3 million worth of products, 265,000 meals, 2,100 shipments of product to more than 100 agencies that serve people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.

The Children in Need program centers around quarterly service events for and product distribution to children and families. Since 2009, they’ve served 3,000 families at quarterly service events, distributing supplies and connecting those families to dozens of community resources, distributed the equivalent of 29,500 meals to children and families in the Thompson School District (through a partnership with the Loveland Rotary Kids Pak program).

In the Night Street Outreach program, volunteers go out onto the streets three nights per week to engage with people experiencing homelessness. They’ve recorded 35,000 interactions with thousands of unduplicated individuals in 861 consecutive (Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday) Street Outreach shifts.

SSG Travis Mills Foundation

The Veterans Giving Circle chose the SSG Travis Mills Foundation. Veteran families who have been injured in active duty or as a result of their service to our nation receive an all-inclusive, all-expenses paid, barrier-free vacation in Maine with the SSG Travis Mills Foundation where they participate in adaptive activities, bond with other veteran families, and enjoy much-needed rest and relaxation in Maine’s outdoors.

Located on 17 acres, they have a fully handicap accessible 11,000 square foot facility. In 2017, they hosted 84 veteran families over 11 weeks that were able to participate in adaptive sports and activities. Those activities included: Yoga, Archery, Kayaking, Canoeing, Boating, Fly Fishing, Bass Fishing, Guided Fishing Trips, Pottery, Painting, Culinary Arts (Cooking Courses, Baking), Guest Chefs, Martial Arts (Self Defense), Challenge Ropes Course, Cycling, Horseback Riding, Shooting Sports, Hiking, Golfing, Massage therapy.

Read the testimonials from the veterans and families who’ve been to the retreat: https://www.travismills.org/foundation/our-retreat/testimonials/