Bringing Smiles
Animal Assisted Happiness connects children with special needs and animals to help bring a smile to their day. In Zach's case, it's more than smiles ... it's jumping for joy!
Copyright © 2009-2011 by Animal Assisted Happiness. All rights reserved.
What We Do
Animal Assisted Happiness (AAH) enriches the lives of children experiencing health or family challenges. As a non-profit organization, we provide local destinations where children and their family members interact with animals to bring moments of happiness and a smile into their daily lives and challenges.
In the United States, there are nearly 2,500,000 children with one or more special needs. In the Bay Area alone, there are over 13,000 children with these challenges. AAH is committed to helping these children and other children with severe, chronic or otherwise disabling health issues or who have family challenges, such as homelessness, split families, or domestic violence situations. AAH's vision is to bring a "Million Smiles" to all these children and family members.
At Animal Assisted Happiness, we recognize that children with special needs and their families struggle on a daily basis. We are here to help by bringing moments of joy into their day be letting your child interact with animals and experience a smile that only animals can bring. All our programs and services are free of charge.
Services are free of charge.
Funding 100% by donations and run by volunteers, Animal Assisted Happiness programs are free of charge to you.
Our progressive program at your pace.
Animal Assisted Happiness program’s goal is to have your child develop a relationship with one of our animals, which we believe the skills gained with animals will translate over into social situations. This goal is achieved in four progressions:
- Exposure. This phase is the ‘meet and greet’ phase. We introduce your child to as many animals as possible and see which one(s) they have a reaction with. Once these animal(s) are identified, we encourage further time spent with those animal(s) to experience engagement.
- Engagement. This phase is when your child selects an animal(s), takes an interest in it and willfully tries to engage with it, such as petting the animal(s).
- Interaction. This phase is when your child is engaged with an animal and begins to develop a two-way communication with it. This can take the form of talking to the animal or trying to get the animal to do something they wish.
- Relationship. This final phase is when your child builds a friendship and relationship with an animal. This phase is characterized when your child seeks out a specific animal, has caring concerns, and wishes to do something about the concerns. Examples of this phase includes feeding, grooming and caring for the animal(s).
Go at your pace.
We recognize that each child is unique and respond differently. We've also have found that it takes multiple, repetitive visits for each phase. So we provide private and small-group visits so your child can interact at their own pace, with minimal distractions. So come as many times as you need.
Animals can come to you.
To accommodate children with limited mobility, we can offer to bring animals to you. Ask for details.
We invite you to contact us to schedule your visit to experience a smile that only animals can bring.
