CT & RI’s Newest Violence Prevention & Character Education Program with help from rescued dogs in the classroom.
Stonington, CT
06378
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Healing Species is the nation’s first proven-effective violence prevention program reaching youth and addressing issues of the heart to overcome abuse, bullying, and crime with the assistance of rescued dogs whom no one else wanted. The purpose of the program is to reach youth with a message of hope and healing through lessons that empower them to rise above the actions of others and change things for themselves and those around them.
One of the key components contributing to the success of the program is the rescued and rehabilitated dogs who help bring the program's lessons in responsibility, empathy, compassion, and empowerment to life. The dogs are a living example of overcoming one's past and helping to demonstrate that even the most wounded or voiceless among us is important and has something important to contribute.
Healing Species was founded in 1999 in Orangeburg, SC when attorney Cheri Brown Thompson created the curriculum in response to discoveries she made during her legal studies in criminal law. Focusing her research on "depraved heart" criminals, while interviewing thousands of convicted violent offenders, Cheri became greatly troubled by the link she discovered between violence toward animals and violent crime in society-finding that 99.9% of convicted violent offenders were abused as children and, in turn, inflicted abuse on animals (creatures more vulnerable than themselves) before committing violence against humans. The relationship between previous abuse, animal cruelty and perpetuated human violence led to a founding principle of Healing Species-which is to touch and help heal the heart invoking empathy- the missing emotion in many violent offenders.
Inspiration for the program also came from Gravey, a dog who came into Cheri's life during her legal studies, and contributed significantly to the inception of Healing Species. While in law school, Cheri was driving on a rural road in South Carolina in-between Orangeburg and Columbia, when she noticed Gravey who at the time was chained up, covered with mange, had lost her fur, and her entire body was one giant scab and skeleton. Cheri said that the chains had been left on Gravey so tightly for so long that her skin had actually started to grow over the chains around her neck.
