2017 ANNUAL REPORT

Bringing People and Animals

Together for Healing

animal@therapyanimalssa.org 210-614-6734

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From the President,

This year we completed our 29th year of service. As an all-volunteer organization,

the annual report provides an opportunity to reflect on our mission and to

recognize our dedicated volunteers. Our volunteers are important ambassadors

spreading the message of the power of the human-animal bond and bringing

people and animals together for healing.

We are grateful for the many community members and others who believe in our mission and who have

supported our work through grants, donations, sponsorships, and memorials. This support allows us to

serve those who are in a vulnerable population free of charge.

We strive to meet or exceed local, national and where applicable, international standards. This includes

our ongoing commitment to professionalism and remaining current with new health policies that might

impact our work and staying well-informed of national and international research in human-animal

relationships. We are an affiliate member of the International Association of Human-Animal Interactions

Organization (IAHAIO).

Our Board of Directors provides guidance as we adapt to the changes in the field of animal activities and

therapy, the accompanying intra-organizational relationships, and overall community needs. We

encourage our members to attend Board meetings and to be active members in all aspects of the

organization. Contributions by many, both as a human-animal team and as individuals, are all valued and

needed.

Sincerely, Dr. Kathryn Meade, President Therapy Animals of San Antonio

2017 Board of Directors

(not shown Steve Fontenot; Eileen Gaughran)

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Goal Attainment

Electronic Policy Manual/Forms

Created an online animal therapy team training course for new volunteers (including a mastery based pre-orientation class assignment) and established online accessibility to all members for reference

Updated and standardized the TASA Orientation Class, revised the related power point and strengthened the educational role play components

Updated the StoryTails manual for new volunteers and created online accessibility to all members for reference

Revised new Team registration processes

Updated various policies within the Volunteer System for full membership access

Scanned old records for electronic storage in the “cloud”

Conducted Evaluator and Instructor meetings to address changes and ensure processes that support teams and current best practices

Facility Request form created and put on our website to expedite contacts with facilities requesting services

Increase consistent use of Volunteer System / capture real contributions

Orientation to system upon joining

Reminders and support to use system offered periodically

Ongoing encouragement to report all service provided!! (volunteers contribute more volunteer time than recorded)

Ongoing monitoring of membership

Increase or maintain our connections and networks with our sponsors, facilities, and community

Holiday cards sent to facilities

Facilitated service through established member liaisons at high volume program sites

Continued educational presentations to various community organizations

Build and maintain presence in the professional human-animal community

Affiliate member of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organization (IAHAIO)

Developed additional standing retractable displays to help provide education to the community during presentations or activities

Enhanced working relationships with community partners such as PetSmart Funding Successful 19th Annual Fiesta® Pooch Parade

Continued funding from supporting donors

GuideStar – Gold Level maintained

Continued good stewardship of funds

Build and sustain membership capacity

Identification, development and training of new evaluators and instructors to support new team learning and increased opportunities for evaluation

Improved mentorships and follow-up contacts for new teams

Succession Planning

Engaged members in governance – circulated agendas, minutes, invited to Board meetings, made 1:1 contacts

Sent Volunteer System general announcements and notices

Aligned membership interests and competencies with opportunities

Solicited members for open Board positions and other areas of organizational need resulting in two new Board members

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Steve Fontenot Vice-President Always having a cheerful attitude, Steve completed his second year as a TASA Officer serving on the Board as vice-president. He maintained the TASA Facebook page and was instrumental in media contacts. These sometimes require getting up early to appear on 6:00 AM newscasts!

Lynda Melendez Secretary

In addition to coordinating a community based program, mentoring new teams,

coordinating the annual Animal Cracker’s event, and evaluating prospective Pet

Partners registered teams, Lynda is our secretary. Minutes are recorded for each

of our meetings and approved by the Board prior to distributing to membership.

She also sends out sympathy and other types of administrative cards. All

members are welcome to attend Board meetings and contribute input.

Beverly Oakes Treasurer & Volunteer System Manager

Beverly is our long-time Treasurer. This requires many hours of careful work to ensure our finances are in order. She also manages the on-line volunteer system program. This system tracks all volunteers, their evaluations, and their hours of service. Beverly mentors new teams and completes many therapy and presentation visits throughout the year. She and her cat Zane Grey represent her newest therapy team.

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Eileen Gaughran Membership Chair The overall membership continued to remain stable with team membership growing slowly. As the membership chair, Eileen’s responsibilities include tracking memberships, sending reminders, and as necessary archiving membership information. As of the end of 2017, TASA had 142 members (includes families and individuals). Eileen also visits in the community with her animal partner.

Phyllis Blair Phone Committee Chair A committee of volunteers answered the TASA phone line throughout the year and responded to community inquiries or made referrals to the appropriate TASA member for follow-up. Thanks to Mary Lou Wilson, Carlynn Ricks, Dan Lindahl, Norma Brooks, Hilda Statz and Phyllis Blair. As the chair, Phyllis attends all Board meetings helping to shape organizational direction in addition to actively visiting in the community with her animal partner Curby and frequently participating in evaluations, providing the “neutral dog.”

Charlotte Wenger Webmaster Timely updates to our website, tracking the year’s events, and providing feedback to ensure program follow-up and accuracy are Charlotte’s hallmarks. Her efforts in part included a quarterly ‘meet the teams’ project and facilitating organizational movement to electronic document storage. Charlotte critically examines policy, procedures, and helps shape organizational goals and direction. She visits a long term care facility with her therapy animal, Luka. Tammy Castro-Leduc Quartermaster Tammy monitors our inventory of vests, shirts, and patches and creates the annual Holiday cards that are mailed to our facilities. Her animal partner, Viking was King Anbarkio X, our 2017 official Fiesta® San Antonio representative. Tammy and Viking also earned their AKC Therapy Dog Advanced Title for completing 100 visits.

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Linda Porter-Wenzlaff Education Chair Dr. Porter-Wenzlaff is our Education Chair as well as an Instructor and Evaluator. She authored the new curriculum manuals for both the new and StoryTails teams. She continues to provide guidance to the class instructors and is an active evaluator guiding team evaluation processes. As the Education Chair she has been instrumental in her guidance related to policies aligned with best practice standards. She is a frequent speaker at community events providing education about animal therapy and collaborates with national contacts to identify opportunities for growth.

TASA is committed to providing resources, training and ongoing evaluation of our Teams. The process of becoming a new team is rigorous and is staged to provide developing knowledge and skills as well as progressive evaluation. Prospective teams read an online manual, complete a written test; attend a 4-hour training/orientation class without their animal, a Team evaluation, a mentoring process, and a background check prior to their first visit with their animal to a facility. Each stage involves different individuals to promote a non-biased evaluation. Evaluations are consistent with national criteria and are conducted by trained evaluators. It is not uncommon for prospective teams to need support as this process unfolds or to need additional time and development to be fully successful. Our ultimate goal is a well-developed team that can engage across our communities of service with confidence and provide consistently positive human animal interactions. We deeply value the many special people and animals who are committed to community service at this level of quality and know the dedication it takes. They are a gift to us all.

Kathi France & Zac Team Training Chair In August we transitioned to an electronic format with an online manual and written test for prospective teams. The in-person class provides further orientation to our organization along with interactive role playing that gives potential teams an idea of what therapy interactions may involve and the commitment required. The combined electronic and in-person class format has allowed for scheduling flexibility and an increased number of opportunities to join as a

team and to evaluate. Our Education Chair, Volunteer System Manager, Webmaster, and Team Training Chair were integral in facilitating this change. As the Team Training Chair, Kathi France sent out 75 registration packets to prospective teams, answered process-related questions, and coordinated scheduling the 42 people attending a class. Thank you to our instructors: Malinda Red Cloud, Brenda Leiser, Carlynn Ricks, Kathi France, Linda Porter-Wenzlaff, and Melissa Allen-Jones.

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Jenny Cordell Team Evaluation Chair The evaluation process is coordinated by the Evaluation Chair, Jenny Cordell. Jenny has mastered the many different components necessary for a successful and fluid evaluation process. Challenges include scheduling both the volunteers and those evaluating; ensuring the paperwork is fully completed for the evaluators, entering the data into our Volunteer System, and providing support for the next step of the process – successful or needing to re-evaluate. As the membership-training process has evolved this year, it has also created

additional challenges and prompted some changes. One of these changes involved the screening process. While the process was effective in predicting how a team would perform in the evaluation, when the process was offered as a ‘voluntary step’ to provide feedback to the teams, many elected to go directly to the evaluation. Given the number choosing this alternative and volunteer time commitment, it was decided that the screening option would be discontinued. We continue to monitor evaluation success rates for any adverse impact as a result of this change. Thank you to the screening team of Aileen Holeman, DeeDee McGhee, Marilyn Mitton, Melissa Allen-Jones, Jenny Cordell, Susan Gould, and Kathy Meade. Therapy Animals of San Antonio continues to collaborate with community partners to help teams adequately prepare for evaluation. We are working closely with local PetSmart instructors as they develop and implement a national Therapy Dog Training Course designed to provide training that supports a successful evaluation to become a registered team. We also continue to work with the San Antonio Dog Training Club and other local trainers to provide training support. Two registration options are offered by our organization. Both include equivalent criteria and processes. Therapy teams must re-evaluate at least every two years, a process that includes a veterinarian completing a health check on the animal and the volunteer passing a background check. Evaluations involve both new prospective teams in addition to teams that are due to renew. All teams must be current with their registration in order to visit in the community and to be covered by insurance. Evaluations are volunteer intensive. Each morning and afternoon shift typically requires 10 volunteers (4 actors one of whom is a male, a neutral dog team, two evaluators, two office staff and a photographer). During 2017, 40 volunteers worked at least one and many worked multiple evaluations. Thank you to our Evaluators: Lynda Melendez and Amy Gamber (Pet Partners Evaluators) and Linda Porter-Wenzlaff, Cindy Page, Aileen Holeman, and Kathi France (Local Evaluators). There were ten evaluation sessions conducted this year providing more options for testing with less wait time between processes. This appears to have been successful as a total of 73 teams evaluated representing an increase of 38% from the prior year’s 53. Dogs were the primary animal tested with one cat evaluated. The success rate was comparable to the prior year at 81%. Of those successfully passing the evaluation, approximately 19% (Pet Partners registration) and 22% (Local registration) achieved the complex or challenging rating with a large majority of these being renewing teams.

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Animal Assisted Activity and Animal Assisted Therapy The primary mission of Therapy Animals of San Antonio remains the provision of animal assisted activity (AAA) and animal assisted therapy (AAT) to persons across San Antonio and the surrounding 10 counties. AAT involves a team working with a professional to provide specific treatment based on goals identified and documented by a professional for each visit. AAA is more spontaneous, without specific treatment goals, and is often described as a “meet and greet” contact.

Service Metrics Our teams provided more than 3,925 hours of animal assisted activity (AAA) and animal assisted therapy (AAT) in more than 78 facility settings. This represents a 6% increase in hours and more than an 11% increase for facilities. Facilities are registered with TASA and teams provide repeated services to these locations ranging from weekly to monthly visits. Several facilities, such as hospitals, Ronald McDonald Houses, juvenile facilities and others also had multiple teams visiting throughout the year. Teams also provided 13 visits to special facilities. These visits are typically designed for exploratory or limited event specific exposure.

Priscilla Williams Facility Assessment Chair Facilities requesting services complete an online form or send an email to the organization. These requests are fielded by the Facility Chair, Priscilla Williams, who speaks with the facility contact. She completes a facility form that provides potential teams information about the population to be served, the visit location, and program expectations. This coordination of information is integral to the overall mission and connecting teams with facilities. Malinda Red Cloud Community Events & Presentations Chair Teams visiting at special events continue to be popular in the community. Coordinated by Malinda Red Cloud, members participated in 39 special events this year with an estimated 9,494 people visited. This reflects an almost 50% increase in people visited from 2016. The equivalent of 149 teams (many teams participated in multiple events) and 15 non-team volunteers participated for a total of 366 hours. The total hours reflects our policy that limits teams to a maximum of 2 hours on site in accordance with national/international guidelines. Thus, the totals do not account for organizational time or the time to prepare one’s animal for visiting.

Visits included de-stressors at multiple colleges and universities, special events focused on military personnel, youth and community summer camps (e.g., Humane Society, Public Health, Schools and leadership programs), and other varied community events.

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Pat Storlie StoryTails Chair Our StoryTails Program focuses on increasing the reading skills of younger school age children, supporting literacy through the message that reading can be fun, and promoting overall life-skill development. The process involves the student reading an age appropriate book to our animal team in settings that include schools and libraries. The combination of the loving acceptance of the animal, lowers anxiety and blood pressure, and the enjoyment of the animal interaction allows reading to become fun and non-stressful. Research has documented measurable grade level reading skill improvements made by students involved in animal assisted reading programs. We continue to have more requests for the reading program than we have teams. Teams attend a program specific training

class prior to providing this service in addition to being a registered team. Pat provided training to 7 teams in 2017. Our service hours are shown in the pie chart. Most of our hours are making facility visits, followed by organization business which includes the ten board meetings and the annual meeting. Hours volunteered for large events such as the Pooch Parade are not reflected in this chart.

Facility Visits, 3,925

Organization Business,

1,702

Classes, Evals, Mentoring,

833

Group Events, 366

2017 Service Hours

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Stories from the Field The emotional impact of animal therapy visits is hard to describe yet makes significant impacts to both the volunteers and to those visited. Our Stories from the Field is now a component of each of our Board meetings in an attempt to capture and share the qualitative impact of visits.

Stories have included a young girl’s emotional state changing from anger and negative emotions to

relaxed and happy when interacting with Darcy Lynn and the teacher’s emotional response to see this

change; an unexpected community contact by team Luka helping a police officer settle a man who was

talking about killing himself; young air force students comforted by Kira and stating “ I was having a

terrible week and now I feel great; ” multiple occurrences of children interacting with their treatment

provider due to the direct impact of Roscoe; and many more examples that reinforced the power of the

human-animal bond.

Collaborative Programming with the Community TASA Facility Coordinators have been designated for several community based programs that support multiple-teams at a facility. Coordinators are experienced teams who are instrumental in helping to mentor new teams and are a point of contact for the facilities. Ronald McDonald Houses - serving children and their families during times of stress and separation from their local support systems. Three locations are currently served. Coordinator: Dan Lindahl. Cyndi Taylor Krier Juvenile Correctional Treatment Center and Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center - promoting the rehabilitation and well-being of offenders and their families in a residential setting. Coordinator: Lynda Melendez. University Health System Paws Up Program - serving Pediatrics and other areas with identified need including visitors and staff. The hospital considers our Beverly Oakes and Junior to be the ones who started pet therapy there and who helped it develop into the program it is now. Coordinator: Beverly Oakes. Warrior and Family Support Center - working with wounded warriors and their families as well as visiting the inpatients at San Antonio Military Medical Center. Red Cross - serving military and community. Coordinator: Mary Kay Stewart. US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center – serves as the sole facility caring for combat burn

casualties, beneficiaries and civilian emergencies within the Department of Defense. Coordinator: Kaitlin Pruskowski. Children’s Bereavement Center, Children’s Shelter - programming for a very vulnerable population with the mission “to foster healing for grieving children and youth, their families and the community” and “restoring innocence and strengthening families” respectively. Our animals put smiles on the children’s faces and give them a warm, furry body to hug. Coordinators: Steve & Kassia Fontenot. Methodist Hospital – teams serving multiple areas within the facility. Coordinator: Gerald Dubinski, Jr.

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Annual Meeting & Awards

Selecting individuals for awards is a very challenging task as there are many people who deserve recognition each year. The members below were selected for 2017 based on their contributions to the community and to the organization.

Award of Excellence Jeanne Melendez (Carolyn and Pax)

Dedication Award Graham Bishop (Victoria)

Community Service Award (More than 24 years)

Liz Shively

Community Service Award

Gilda Cruz-Romo (Callie) Rising Star Award

Christen Boone (Fritzi) Rising Star Award

Gerald Dubinski, Jr. (Bonnie)

Above & Beyond Awards Jenny Cordell ( Roxxii)

Kassia Fontenot (Bellin) Steve Fontenot (Bellin)

Kathi France (Duncan & Zac) Bev Oakes (Tessa & Zane)

Linda Porter-Wenzlaff Charlotte Wenger (Luka)

Making a Diffeence Awards Melissa Allen-Jones (Mylie)

Phyllis Blair (Curby) Tammy Castro-Leduc (Viking)

Eileen Gaughran (Chica) Dan Lindahl (Moose)

Lynda Melendez (Pax) Pat Storlie (QT)

Alicia Thompson (Isis) Priscilla Williams

Malinda Red Cloud (Bonnie) Hilda Statz (Pierre)

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Financial Report

Beverly Oakes Treasurer As an all-volunteer organization, Therapy Animals of San Antonio is extremely fortunate to have a stable financial situation as a result of good fiscal management, the Fiesta® Pooch Parade, and special donation and grant funding that supports our mission. We are a GuideStar Exchange Gold Participant. The 2017 income reflects a very successful Pooch Parade that included great weather for families to attend and sustained community sponsorships. Additionally, Therapy Animals of San Antonio received a $10,000 grant in 2017.

A portion of the grant money was used to develop new programming and support education for new evaluators. As we enter 2018 we are looking to providing additional training to our teams and potentially exploring specialized training in crisis work and programs addressing bullying in the schools.

2017 Fiesta® Pooch Parade …. 19 Years Strong

The annual Fiesta® Pooch Parade winds its way through the tree lined streets of Alamo Heights the last Saturday of Fiesta®. A family-friendly event, educational activities, informational booths, and a costume contest precede the parade. Congratulations to Viking (partner of Tammy Castro-Leduc), selected as this year’s King Anbarkio. They represented TASA at the parade in addition to many of the public events associated with Fiesta® activities.

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Income $41,695.53 $59,950.41 $48,220.32 $67,995.12 $73,257.86

Expenses $42,930.00 $43,841.14 $42,557.74 $40,550.28 $46,105.23

Variance ($1,234.47) $16,109.27 $5,662.58 $27,444.84 $27,162.65

($10,000.00)$0.00

$10,000.00$20,000.00$30,000.00$40,000.00$50,000.00$60,000.00$70,000.00$80,000.00

Budget Reconciliation 2013 - 2017

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A special thanks to Alicia Thompson, Kathi France, and Sandra Olsaver who coordinated parade arrangements. They require a tremendous amount of volunteer time over the entire year to ensure that all permits, sponsorships, insurance, advertisements, police, and other needs are met. Expenses for the parade in 2017 increased approximately 11% to $13,411.30. Each year a design is selected that is used on brochures and on 1,200 T-shirts that parade registrants receive. The 2017 T-shirt design shown below was created by a TASA member, Sandy Blalock.

This event requires an “all-hands on deck” approach. More than 60 volunteers are required to work the event. Our members are committed to the parade recognizing that this provides financial stability and a location for conducting our activities. As our primary fundraiser, the sponsorships of and community engagement in the Fiesta® Pooch Parade continue to be critical to our ability to offer quality services following national best practices to the vulnerable members of our community. We are profoundly grateful for the many opportunities that this support provides.

Thank you to our sponsors of the 19th Annual Fiesta® Pooch Parade

Top Sponsors

North Park Subaru (Best in Show)

Petco Foundation (Top Dog Sponsor)

Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming (Top Dog Sponsor)

See additional sponsor information at

http://www.therapyanimalssa.org/about/fiesta-pooch-parade/parade-sponsors-2017

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In Memory Of Those Who Passed in 2017

We also recognize the loss of Col. Jerry T. Bailey, Ret. Jerry was a long standing member of TASA who

provided direct community service for many years as a therapy team as well as lending his volunteer

support to many team evaluations and Pooch Parades. His wit and humor will be greatly

missed. (10/16/1935-04/12/2017)