Change of Direction for Gilbriar Farms

San Antonio, Texas - Dec 9th, 2003 - Paula Stone, owner of San Antonio based Gilbriar Farms has come up with an innovative way to share her magnificent horses with people in the community. "After 20+ years as the co-owner (along my ex- husband) and creator of the Gilbriar Farms Arabian horse breeding program, I have come to a fork in the road. My first thought was to create a band of women like myself, to help me maintain and enjoy the horses on a ranch in the hill country. But then I saw a broader application of that idea, a chance to share both my horses and a rural lifestyle, with women of various ages and from diverse backgrounds.... a chance to create a 'family of friends'," she shares.

The problem: The facts of life for foster kids leaving the system, are sobering. According to government records 25% of youth leaving foster care experience homelessness and only 35-45% of teenagers in foster care are able to graduate from high school. 67% (of emancipated foster care youths) reported housing as the most needed service.

The facts are not much better for many of our elder women. Statistics show that 45% of older women living alone are poor or near poor. Elderly widows receive, on average, only $5,964 a year in Social Security benefits and for 25% of non-married women, Social Security is their only source of income. And yet, "Single adults living alone comprise 23.7% of the U.S. households" according to the census.

The resolution: Why not combine the homeless girls, the low income elders and working, single women who want a rural lifestyle without all the expense and labor involved in doing it for themselves? We have started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that does just that.

Our Objectives:
To build a farm that will provide safe housing, nutritious meals, nurturing friends and an enriched learning environment to girls leaving foster care, elder women and working, single women.

To ease the transition of the emancipated foster care girls into the workplace by providing short term employment, teaching social and business skills, assessing goals and options, providing career counseling, references and job placement. To ease the transition of the elders from the workplace into retirement by providing part time employment, utilizing life skills, offering a flexible work load and schedule, eliminating job related expenses and travel. To ease the burdens of solitude for single women by providing a community of supportive peers and an opportunity to mentor young women while learning from older women, and a chance to live a rural lifestyle without having to pay for and do everything alone.

Four Programs that Generate Substantial or Supplemental Income
Each of our four programs will offer jobs for the girls and the elders, so each program will be expected to generate substantial income. We will employ the services of a horse trainer, a master gardener, a chef and an artist to teach the required skills. The emancipated foster care girls will work full time and rotate through the programs to learn various job skills and determine what their career interests are. The elder women will work part to supplement their social security income and help teach the girls. The Gilbriar herd will form the basis of the horse program, whose purpose is to offer the residents a chance to learn about horses and horsemanship. We know that this process also teaches much about people, especially one's self. We will teach Parelli's natural horsemanship with an emphasis on communication, harmony and balance. The purpose of the garden program is to learn about how nature sustains us. We feel that producing much of our own food teaches about the interconnectedness of life and one's place in the universe. We will teach organic gardening with an emphasis on natives.

The cooking required to feed all of us offers a perfect opportunity to learn about the culinary arts. We think that food preparation should be a pleasure and every meal a celebration. We will teach Alice Waters' techniques with an emphasis on nutrition through organic produce and whole grains. Stone's lifelong involvement with furniture, art and interiors, lends itself to a program for the decorative arts, which would teach the value of creativity and the power of restoration. "We believe beauty touches the soul and all lives are improved by it. We will teach several basic skills in a variety of practical mediums," Stone shares.

For more information about the program, visit http://www.gilbriar.com. Also visit http://www.bandofwomen.org.
If you would like to become a part of this vision, please call Paula D. Stone, Executive Director of Gilbriar Farms at: 210-648-7351.

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