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People Give Back

Home for Life^® also offers many avenues of giving for people who want to express their thanks to animals. Among our giving programs:

• Angel Care^SM
• Animal sponsorship
• Planned giving

See the How You Can Help menu above for more donation opportunities.

Volunteers are also essential to our outreach programs. For more information about volunteering, see the Volunteer page.

Education

Our volunteers and animal residents give presentations free of charge to area clubs, schools, and community and youth groups.

Members of Boy Scout Troop 127, pose with Harvey, HFL's bulldog.

By the numbers

Since its inception, 105 dogs and 125 at-risk teens have participated in the Renaissance Project.

Home for Life's outreach programs touch the lives of over 1200 adults and 1000 children each year.

A few of our graduates

Photographer Mark Luinenberg is always there on graduation day to photograph Renaissance Program participants. Here are a few of our recent graduates.

Animals Give Back:
Home for Life^® Outreach Programs

HFL touches people of all ages through our innovative community outreach programs and the client organizations we serve. Animals that were once rejected and neglected are given a second chance at our sanctuary, and then, with faith in life restored; give back through their participation in the Pet Peace Corps.

Note: Some of the photos pictured above were featured in a 2006 mailer about our outreach programs. Read the mailer, which also includes short bios of new residents that came to us in 2006.

Pet Peace Corps^SM

The Pet Peace Corps^SM programs foster a stronger bond of mutual respect between humans and animals by having them work together toward a common, mutually beneficial goal. Some of the client organizations we serve through the Pet Peace Corps:

Peace Creatures^®
A collaborative program with the Tubman Family Alliance of the Twin Cities and the Women of Nations Shelter in St. Paul, MN, the Peace Creatures^® project uses volunteers, staff and animals from the sanctuary to teach peaceful conflict resolution to families impacted by domestic violence.

The Renaissance Project
Now in its 11th year, this program pairs our younger dogs with at-risk teens from a high school in River Falls, WI and another in St. Paul, MN. The teens train the dogs and bring them on visits for therapy work with the elderly, families at domestic abuse shelters, and patients at the University of Minnesota Medical Center-Fairview, and the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The program has become a model for other area shelters and rescue groups that have started their own outreach efforts.

Sit*Stay*Heal
This collaborative program began with the Fairview University Hospitals to bring solace and joy to children who are undergoing treatment for cancer in the University of Minnesota's pediatric oncology ward.

Sit*Stay*Heal has now expanded to serve:

• Adult critical care patients at Fairview University Hospital's cardiac and oncology floors.
• Adult and pediatric (ages 4-12) patients at Fairview University Hospital receiving treatment for mental health conditions.
• Patients at the Aseracare a hospice facility in the Twin Cities.
• Injured veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts receiving treatment at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center's Polytrauma Unit, one of just four such units in the country.

Senior Outreach Program
Home for Life^® staff, volunteers and animal residents visit nursing homes throughout the Twin Cities for therapy work with the elderly.