In 1999, a law school student at the University of South Carolina School of Law heard her Criminal Law professor teach: "Especially violent crimes are referred to as 'depraved heart' crimes and we look at 'depravity of heart' for sentencing guidelines." The link was made and this law student clearly saw, "Criminality is a matter of the heart. Let us, therefore, address and repair the heart. Let us start with the children." Cheri Brown Thompson is that law school student who had her world changed in one day, with that one sentence.

 

Cheri Brown Thompson, now the founder and director of Healing Species, is an attorney who gave up practicing law in order to address societal crime and justice on the "preventative end" as opposed to the "after the fact" prosecution and incarceration end. Thompson created the Healing Species and today its intervention curriculum is used by over 50 public schools, incarceration facilities, rehabilitation centers and private schools in South Carolina alone, with start up satellite chapters currently in four other states.

Through several years of legal research and personally conducting interviews with convicted violent offenders, Thompson discovered that all of the violent offenders have two things in common: 1) they were abused as children and 2) they first acted out the abuse on the only victim more vulnerable than themselves, an animal. This realization led to the founding principles of the Healing Species, a program dedicated to ending the cycle of returning "violence for violence."

 

The Healing Species program is a proven-effective, 12-week, published Violence Intervention curriculum that also incorporates the aid of rescued dogs (dogs nobody else wanted) as "teachers and healers" in lessons focused on getting help if in harm's way or abuse, combined with other practical life skills, healing, compassion, integrity, respect for the feelings of others, living a life of meaning, learning responsibility to self as well as others and learning how to rise above "hate for hate." It is a violence intervention that uniquely addresses matters of the heart.

 

The program works by: Step 1) Building a bridge between students and their hearts with the help of rescued animals. The participation of the rescued dogs helps Healing Species reach high-risk children. The dogs help the children open up to the message that even the most wounded among us have something important to give. Step 2) Once a safe environment for students is created, they are open to learning how to "rise above" their circumstances. Step 3) Healing Species provides the inspired students with the skills necessary to intercept the cycle of crime by helping others who also need an advocate. Each 12-week session ends with a student-led community service project.

 

The program is exceptionally unique and the only program of its kind to address crime and poverty by addressing the heart. Healing Species teaches compassion as its vehicle for change and recovery as the character component. Once a child can feel for the "least of these" the child is no longer a "me, me, me" individual. Even a wounded child can find a strong heart, learn skills on how to get help, and then go on to help others.

 

The unique twist: Those who really bring the Healing Species lessons to life are the rescued dogs who act as "helpers and teachers" in every lesson. Each class begins with the dog's story of abuse and neglect, a situation to which the children can often relate. Through the dog's story, the children find a happy ending, hope and courage for their own stories. The dogs demonstrate that even the most wounded or voiceless among us is important and has something important to contribute. Lastly, the dogs provide an incredibly strong "visual aid" to the Healing Species lessons, thus making it possible for even struggling students to remember lessons.

 

In 2007, over 2,000 students were served through Healing Species. Requests for "Return-Service" have come from every venue served. Current evaluations show that among students who went through Healing Species when no other intervention programs were in implemented: out-of-school suspensions decreased by 55%, general aggression, retaliation aggression and total aggression combined decreased by 62%, choice making using empathy increased by 42% and PACT and other academic scores went up measurably. Teachers in classrooms served by Healing Species noted a 66% decrease in student displays of violence and an 80 to 100% increase in student cooperation and improved attitude. These changes within the lives of these students will ultimately make them more successfully educated at school, more employable, less violent and less likely to become incarcerated.

 

Caption: A healer and teacher, this dog helps spread God's message of healing, hope and love with the Healing Species program.