Kindred Spirits Care Farm

Kindred Spirits Care Farm

As a girl, Karen Snook preferred to spend her time watching bugs, butterflies, squirrels, and bats rather than playing with other children.  But life happens and her passion was set aside for an undergraduate degree from UCLA, an MBA from Pepperdine, and 20 years in the corporate world.

In 2008, when Karen Snook left her job in the corporate world as the Vice President of Leadership Development for Countrywide Financial Corp., she followed her heart and went after what she really

Kindred Spirits Care FarmPhoto by Kindred Spirits Care Farm
In 2008, when Karen Snook left her job in the corporate world as the Vice President of Leadership Development for Countrywide Financial Corp., she followed her heart and went after what she really wanted to do:  help animals.  She got a job as the Executive Director of an animal advocacy organization.  It was this move that led her to her current passion: running a care farm, a place that help people heal from trauma and day-to-day challenges by working with animals and gardens. 

 

Karen and a couple of her friends started Kindred Spirits Care Farm in 2013.  Their first project was a one-acre farm on the grounds of a high school for at-risk kids.  It was the best place a good starting point since they didn’t have funding, land, or animals of their own.  It was an opportunity to help the school with their farm and the students who were introduced to gardens, plants, and animals.  Unfortunately, the school closed their program after seven years.

The current incarnation of Kindred Spirits Care Farm is a seven-acre ranch with trees and lots of peace in the city of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley.

In an interview with Voyage L.A, Karen shares her vision of the program: “Kindred Spirits Care Farm is the dream of a better world. When we look around, we see people who are overwhelmed, hurt, isolated and lost…Kindred Spirits Care Farm was created to try to bring that connection back to people and help them heal from whatever hurts them by connecting them back to the real world, to the miracles of nature, plants, animals, and true interaction with others. We don’t claim to be healers. We don’t have to be. All we have to do is create the opportunity for the magic to happen and the animals and the earth do the rest. And it works. As a matter of fact, there are hundreds of care farms of various types in Western Europe, and they have done studies that prove they work to soothe and heal the human spirit.”
Credit Kindred Spirits Care FarmPhoto by Kindred Spirits Care Farm
Kindred Spirits Care Farm is one of the few non-profit organizations providing a space for farming, farm animal rescues, and a place for people to heal and reconnect with nature, animals, and themselves.  Though care farms are very popular in Western Europe, there is only one other care farm in the United States, and it is in Oregon.  Some of their programs include animal rescue and sanctuary, permaculture gardens, volunteer programs and field trips.

Kindred Spirits Care FarmPhoto by Danrochelle Yumul

This summer, they are running a Summer Camp at the Ranch from June 13th through August 12th for campers ages 5 to 12.  The camp runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:00am to 12:00pm.  Campers will have the opportunity to meet the farm animals (including Pedro, their famous alpaca), do some gardening, be in nature, and do arts and crafts. Keep up with them on social media @kindredspiritscarefarm!