Users

Users of Spirit Gardens will include the patients, generous volunteer instructors on rotation for exercise classes such as yoga and tai chi, painting, drawing, cooking, and gardening, as well as a volunteer wellness staff such as caretakers, counselors, and spiritual guidance from a Chaplain or Clergy who will help with the patients and families staying at Spirit Gardens. There will also be volunteers for obedience training, and animal assisted therapy practitioners. A small paid staff will consist of a trained RN, on site veterinarian, and security and administrative personnel will be necessary to keep Spirit Gardens afloat. Salaries will be covered by Spirit Garden’s operating expenses budget. The domed aviary and animal assisted therapy center will be open to the public to furthermore create revenue for Spirit Gardens and the public will be permitted to adopt pets that are housed here to help save as many dogs as possible. The main entrances are located right off Victory Avenue where quests will be dropped off or picked up at the residential lobby. Employees and volunteers will use the same entrance as the patients, but will also have access to the side entry gate further down Victory Ave. closer to the activity and AAT Center, for convenient access to the facilities. Patients staying in the residential guest rooms will have access to the facilities running in the residential area at all times such as the dining facility, lounge rooms, and surrounding gardens. Guests will be welcomed as if they are in their own homes where each room will have amenities such as a bathroom and a private seating area so they can have their own personalized space. The dining area will have an outdoor seating area as well as an indoor if the weather is bad. To get to their rooms, guests will walk through the front gates and be escorted through the corridor into the former Pavilion, where they will be shown to their rooms. Patients are free to wander the garden trails in and around the former Botanical Gardens, and participate in any of the activities provided by Spirit Gardens. Guests will however, have limited access to the animal assisted therapy Center and activity wings, where they are permitted only during running hours. Families of patients will be allowed to participate in activities such as cooking, yoga, tai chi, AAT activities, etc. when alongside their family member. On specified days, when the AAT and Activity Center are not being used by the patients, the public are, for a small fee, be allowed in to take classes or adopt available dogs. Patients will not be permitted to keep their cars on site during their stay but will have access to private vans that will provide rides to requested areas and in and around Spiritual Gardens as well. They can either follow specified paths through the gardens, and walk leisurely from the residence house to the activity and AAT Center, or they can be driven by cart or bus down Victory Ave to and from the side entry gate if needed. Spirit Gardens will work closely with the City Park Horse Stables, where services will be provided for the guest to be close with the horses to even further execute AAT on the patients using horses. The stables are just a short drive away from the gardens, and will be provided to the guests at specified times. The Gardens will also work closely with the local SPCA, where they will get the majority of their dogs, that already have been screened where they will decide whether or not they are safe to be used as AAT dogs with the patients.