Vocational farm in Hampshire offers animal therapy, goat grams ahead of Easter

HAMPSHIRE – Live Learn and Lead – a vocational farm in Hampshire – is doing well after more than three years of serving the public through programming it said transforms the mind, body and spirit.

Didi Dowling, owner and executive director of Live Learn and Lead, said individuals who are helped by her 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization are taught life skills, such as work ethic, cooking, home and animal care as well as basic mechanics. The organization is based in Hampshire but operates throughout the region, including DeKalb, Boone, Kane, McHenry and Lake counties.

The charitable organization exists today because Dowling decided she wanted to find a way to work out of her barn after getting a master’s degree in social work from George Williams College of Aurora University in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

“I basically wanted to have my barn be my office, so I created Live Learn and Lead,” Dowling said.

She also wanted to share her farm with people who need a therapeutic and comfortable space.

It’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time and to know that it’s actually working and it’s helping people, and I’m able to do – I just think it’s super cool.”

—  Didi Dowling, owner and executive director of Live Learn and Lead

According to the Live Learn and Lead website, “The farm offers a life-sharing work environment in an atmosphere of beauty, warmth and respectfulness.”

The nonprofit farm hosts traveling sessions to area schools, bringing goats with it for schoolchildren across the region. Other events offer chances to learn how to make goat’s milk soap and candles, and partner with 4-H groups across northern Illinois for educational opportunities.

Dowling said the farm is doing well, although its start wasn’t easy. She began the endeavor in December 2019, three months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which came with its own set of challenges, she said.

“We started by doing the traveling with the goat yoga to get the name out and then, unfortunately, the pandemic hit. I got [COVID-19] really bad [and] I had to shut down for a while,” Dowling said.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Live Learn and Lead will offer an Easter-themed fundraiser it’s calling Goat Grams, in which the farm brings a goat to a donor for a 15-minute visit complete with a goodie bag with goat milk soap and lotions.

“During the pandemic, we couldn’t do the goat yoga, so we got really creative, and I came up with doing goat grams, where we go to people’s houses with two of our baby goats,” Dowling said.

The Goat Grams were especially popular during the pandemic, Dowling said, prompting the nonprofit to explore the offering further.

“So we kept it going, and this Easter it filled up so fast that I still had people asking me for it, but we’ve got so many to do already we had to shut [goat gram requests] down,” Dowling said. “So we’ll do more Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and we’ve done some for private birthdays ... I just felt like it was another therapeutic aspect for people during the pandemic.”

In 2021, the vocational farm expanded its operation through a partnership with Kane County 4-H and began hosting agriculture education classes for children and adults during the week.

Andrea Farrier, the Kane County 4-H program coordinator said the connection between 4-H and Live Learn and Lead has been a natural partnership, in part because Dowling is a Kane County 4-H alumna.

Farrier also said the suburban nature of Kane County means participating children and adults are able to immerse themselves in a different type of environment than they’re likely used to. She said that’s expected to have mental health benefits.

“When mental health is an issue, this is a way for them to escape that, really channel their skills, gain skills. It really allows them to connect one on one with a mentoring adult,” Farrier said. “It helps them learn skills for entry-level positions at stables or other situations like that.”

Dowling said that every day she thinks about how lucky she is to have Live Learn and Lead operating successfully.

“It’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time, and to know that it’s actually working and it’s helping people – I just think it’s super cool,” Dowling said.