SHARE:
We are a non-profit organization in Hillsboro, Missouri, dedicated to helping young girls and teens to become confident and empowered young women through equine programs, mentorship, and employment training.
Our mission is to develop and maintain equine facilitated learning programs that teach young women confidence, resiliency, leadership, and strength of character.
Our girls develop essential life skills, confidence, employment skills, and emotional regulation skills through groundwork with our horses, horseback riding, working the ranch as Barn Aides, and through our comprehensive mentorship program.
Additionally, our girls learn essential entrepreneurship skills to fundraise for the program, as well as build a skill set that can help our girls support themselves as they step into adulthood.
Our goal is to continue to create programs that teach girls and young women the life skills they need to enter adulthood as strong, capable, confident, self-assured women who can become leaders that pass those traits on to the next generations of girls coming behind them.
This work goes beyond each individual girl – our community as a whole is impacted by this service by creating compassionate, empathetic leaders who will go on to make the entire community a better place.
In essence, our programs are creating a positive ripple effect into our community, one empowered girl at a time.
CONNECT:
Both the founder of GaitWay Inc, Jackie Greer, and the Executive Director, Heather Compton, grew up in the area and had very difficult childhoods. As a result, they both struggled with their mental health and headed down a troubled lifestyle.
Both Jackie and Heather overcame their challenges as troubled teens and are now devoted to making the world a better place. Jackie and Heather’s mission at GaitWay Inc. is to help young girls who are in the same position they were in.
Through mentorship, working with the horses, and working the ranch, Jackie and Heather have developed a comprehensive program to help prevent young girls, teens, and young adults from experiencing what they experienced as young children.
Just as Jackie and Heather’s success stories led to a positive impact in their own community by starting a non-profit, we know that helping other troubled and struggling girls to transform into confident young women will have a positive ripple effect throughout our community.
We have now served over 40 teens in our program, and plan to expand our impact. Here are a few of the success stories from our program so far:
- Success Story 1: G.: failing to make the show team, then spending the next year working on her skills, trying out again and not only making it, but coming in as the highest scorer and becoming the team captain. Skills shown here: grit, determination, courage, work ethic, belief in herself.
- Success Story 2: D.: for the first six months she was in the program, she was so shy she couldn’t look up from the floor when someone spoke to her. Now, after 18 months of the program, she is a shift leader, works on our business team, has amazing customer service skills, leads the younger girls, and can confidently speak to almost anyone with her head held high. Skills learned here: communication, confidence, leadership
- Success Story 3: J.: had major issues with emotional regulation. Emotional meltdowns on many of her shifts, crying, sitting herself in a corner on the floor, hiding in the other room. Through mentorship and working with anxious horses, she now has emotional regulation and reasoning skills that can help her through those anxiety attacks, which has allowed her to become our most valued peer leader in the program. She is also employed as an unmounted horsemanship instructor and is able to teach these skills to her clients.
Recently, a local pediatrician reached out to us, who works with one of the Dream Makers (with permission). This girl had been struggling with both physical and mental health challenges, which the pediatrician was treating. The girl had a checkup recently and had made dramatic improvements in both her physical and mental health. When the pediatrician asked the girl what had changed, she said that she had started the Dream Maker Program, which helped her get in shape and reduced multiple mental health symptoms. The pediatrician was so impressed that she reached out to get involved with us.
SUPPORT:
Our goal is to continue to create programs that teach girls and young women the life skills they need to enter adulthood as strong, capable, confident, self-assured women who can become leaders that pass those traits on to the next generations of girls coming behind them.
This work goes beyond each individual girl – our community as a whole is impacted by this service by creating compassionate, empathetic leaders who will go on to make the entire community a better place.
In essence, our programs are creating a positive ripple effect into our community, one empowered girl at a time.
We welcome support from our local community as well. You can support our cause by:
- Following us on social media
- Sharing about our mission
- Joining our email list to stay in touch!
- Donating to our organization (we are 100% funded by charitable contributions and grants)
- Corporate Sponsorships and Donations of “Market Ready” Products from local manufacturers.
- Donating your time as a volunteer (contact us for details)
Please SHARE this link to CONNECT more people (and horses!) to help create and SUPPORT our community!
You can learn more about getting involved HERE:
CONTACT:
Preferred Contact Method | |
Primary Phone | 636.489.8108 |
Company Address | 5327 Liberty School Road, Hillsboro, Missouri, 63050 |
Email Address | heather@gaitwayinc.org |
Company Website | https://gaitwayinc.org/ |
Facebook Link | http://facebook.com/gaitwayinc |
Instagram Link | http://instagram.com/gaitwayinc |
Additional Social Media Links | https://linktr.ee/gaitwayinc |