Story by Rebecca West
Photos by Ondrej Koplik of ORNG Visuals
Founded in December 2021 by Jackie Vasquez-Lapan, Sunshine Therapy Animals (STA) provides critical assistance to at-risk youth and children in crisis through certified pet therapy teams with life-changing results. Anyone with pets can tell you about the very real impact of animal therapy. The emotional support they provide us cannot be overstated. Their ability to bring us up from the depths of misery is nothing short of miraculous.
They are capable of giving us the ability to love and trust again, and in the case of children, help free them from the cycle of violence they may be silently experiencing or instill confidence in them after years of physical or emotional neglect by helping build self-esteem. While the results of early intervention can be profound, the healing benefits of animal therapy can positively affect people of all ages.
Offering unconditional love, STA recruits, trains, and places registered teams throughout Tucson. Therapy teams are comprised of a volunteer and their pet, which, interestingly enough, are not always dogs. To date, they have teams that include an alpaca, a mini horse, a goat, a cat, and even a small brood of hens.
Teams visit various facilities that serve historically underserved or disenfranchised youth and focus on instilling life skills the children may not have learned through traditional means. They include Rio Vista, Pathways, Hollinger, CE Rose, and Pueblo High School, just to name a few. Sunshine Therapy Animals also has an after-school program called PETS on the southside of Tucson on the same campus as Wakefield Elementary/Middle School, which they also serve, as well as Hollinger and CE Rose.
The goal of each visit is to develop and strengthen positive behaviors in the kids with the hope that they will learn courage, grit, empathy, trust, confidence, respect, and self-awareness. According to STA, “Once a child learns to be empathetic toward the animal and understands the therapy animal has feelings and emotions, a link develops, enabling the child to be sensitive to the feelings of others. The therapy animal catalyzes the child to open up and feel attached to the animal.” Ultimately, the desired result is that the children will become actively engaged and thrive in the facility they’re served in.
Most kids have a natural affection for animals, and animals — particularly dogs — have been proven to have a positive impact in educational settings. You frequently see canines included in libraries, where they have been shown to significantly improve reading skills, such as reading rates, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension levels. Sunshine Therapy Animals has B.A.A.R.K!, which stands for Books, Animals, and Reading Kids!, a reading program that lends a non-judgmental ear to struggling readers.
Their involvement also enhances primary skills, like object recognition and categorization, mitigates stress levels, especially events like final exams, and provides a source of motivation, stimulation, and focus in learning while serving as a tool for recognizing boundaries.
In recent years, STA has received an influx of schools requesting visits due to personal family troubles, leaving children in need of emotional support. As the facility notes, if there’s a need, they figure out a way to fulfill it.
The program’s founder, Jackie Vasquez-Lapan, previously worked as a special ed teacher with the Tucson Unified School District for six years before becoming the executive director of local nonprofit Gabriel’s Angels, which also works with at-risk youths. From there, she would become the National Director of Field Relations for Pet Partners, a national group responsible for registering therapy animals. It was her work with therapy animals and the creation of the Lapan College & Career Club’s first-ever therapy animal program that led to the expansion of Sunshine Therapy Animals.
One of the things that makes them stand out from other animal therapy groups is that they are the only organization in Arizona with an actual brick-and-mortar setup where members of the public can come in and tour the facility and learn more about the program. They provide tremendous support for their volunteers, including supplying their trading cards, animal therapy vests, and STA organizational T-shirts. Everything is covered by them.
It should be noted that improving the mental wellness of the people they visit extends to domestic violence shelters, El Rio Health Clinic, the VA Hospital, and Tucson Medical Center, among others. So, it isn’t just children who benefit from its services.
While Sunshine Therapy Animals is not yet hosting fundraisers, they plan to later this fall and relish the opportunity to get involved with different Tucson community events. If you have an event that would benefit from unconditional animal love, you can request a visit. If you’re interested in becoming a therapy team, which they always need, or you’d like more info about recruiting their help, go to sunshinetherapyanimals.org
