Surf and Turf Therapy

Committed to bettering lives through nontraditional therapeutic activities, including surfing and horseback riding.

Surf and turf therapy was founded in 2018 by Dr. Jillian Stewart, a physical therapist and hippotherapy clinical specialist, who saw a need for additional opportunities for people with disabilities and their families to participate in activities within the community. Surf and Turf Therapy provides physical, occupational and speech therapy services to people with disabilities, targeting traditional, functional goals through non-traditional approaches, including surfing and horseback riding. These unique approaches offer unparalleled opportunities to address deficits in strength, stability, body awareness, coordination, safety awareness, tone management, flexibility, attention and sensory integration. The focus of treatment is to improve daily life skills, such as walking, postural alignment, talking, and writing, rather than simply teaching individuals how to surf or ride. Siblings and parents are also invited to join in treatment sessions, with therapy emphasizing fun, function and inclusion.

Our goal is to serve everyone in need, regardless of their ability to pay. We started with just one horse, one therapist and a few surf boards in fall of 2018, but the community support and interest in services lead us to grow into a program with 12 horses, 3 Full Time staff, 3 Part Time staff, as well as quiver of boards to meet the needs of our patients and their families. We get new inquiries from interested participants on a weekly basis and have been experiencing consistent growth in demand for our services throughout our 6 years of service.

1. Last year we were able to provide scholarships for 35% of our participants, valued at nearly $55,000, while also continuing to build our reserves and ensure sustainability as a young organization.
2. We served up to 80 individuals each week in our traditional programs while also building additional community based opportunities based on interest from those we serve - including horsemanship ground programs, a walking program, rock climbing, aquatic therapy, dance classes and other various community integration opportunities.
3. Our second location in San Diego continued to operate smoothly and connections were the first program of its kind to offer a summer surf pilot program in MI to assess the needs of the community for future programming.

------------------

Current Goals

1. Hire full time administrative support - currently our therapists and instructors are sharing the load with administrative tasks. With office support they will be able to increase their capacity to serve our community.
2. Expand social programs - build inclusive group opportunities to allow greater integration into the community, additional fitness opportunities and promote social skills.
3. Expand surf program - we currently have a 40+ person waitlist and are looking to expand our surf program to offer opportunity to everyone who is interested.

Due to the consistent increase in request for services from the community, we are looking to raise funds to hire additional therapist and instructor to support growth. Together these positions grow our salary budget by an additional $105,000 annually to maintain both positions at a fair rate. Additionally, a volunteer office manager available 15 hours per week would be welcomed, lowering our salary budget.

We are also looking to add advisory board members who are passionate about our mission with skills in any of the following areas - human resources, accounting, fundraising, and law.

We are also looking to continue to grow the surf side of the program to meet the needs in our community. We have been fortunate to acquire some great equipment, but it is getting difficult to house it all. A shed that is custom built to maximize our limited space and allow us to store large boards in a small footprint would be ideal. We currently have a quote at just over $6,500 for this build.

We operate the Turf (hippotherapy) side of our program in San Juan Capistrano and the Surf (surf therapy) in Dana Point. We have partipants from all over Orange County, especially on the surf side as there are no other local organizations providing medically based physical, occupational and speech therapy services using surfing as a primary treatment tool for the special needs community.

We also have a small chapter in San Diego, primarily surf focused, but also offering community integration opportunities.

We are in our second year offering a summer surf opportunity in West Michigan, enjoying the fresh water waves of the great lakes.

At Surf and Turf Therapy we value quality over quantity and inclusion over exclusivity. Our goal has always been to meet the needs of the community, with high standards for the quality of care we provide, whether that is for 1 patient or 100 patients. We value inclusion and collaboration, partnering with other organizations to ensure the needs of the entire family are met, including supporting neurotypical siblings, who are encouraged to participate alongside their sibling(s) with a disability, both in the surf and on the turf. Additionally, in 2022 we began offering free horsemanship classes to children from the low income neighborhood right next to the ranch. These kids see horses through a fence daily but are limited financially in their ability to access them. Through this program we have identified children with additional needs, who are now a part of our therapy program and had some participants return as volunteers, with a spark of passion for horses and giving back that was ignited during their free programming with us.

Though our hippotherapy and surf programming are almost equal in terms of the number we have served. We have have gained international recognition for our work - including a featured image in the New York Times, a feature in the E! News article "Meet 13 heroes who are inspiring America with their selfless work," nomination's for awards such a "Women Making a Difference" and "The Aloha Award," and local news coverage, as well as referrals from therapists abroad for collaboration in research projects, as well as observation of our work and mentorship.

Surf and Turf Therapy has grown from passion with an enormous desire to fill a niche with which humanity seemed to be overlooking. The original passion comes to us from our Founder, Dr. Jillian Stewart, which led her to step out into the role of leader, creator, horse wrangler, water walker and above all a compassionate and knowledgeable therapist. It was the true grit of this woman that also inspired the passion of a strong circle of supporters, confidants and fellow humanitarians that has seen our organization grow from an idea in late 2018 to an organization that provides over 3000 service hours annually. Surf and Turf Therapy pushed through its infancy during one of the most challenging times for organizations that rely on the goodwill of others to exist.

The successes of our organization in these first fives years were not only founding and running a high quality hippotherapy campus but driving an industry first, of a national standard, for surfing as a treatment technique in the physical therapy sector. We rose to meet the need of our community, increasing from 28 weekly treatment hours to 80 weekly hours in just two years.

The objective of any founding organization should be a high standard of care and consistent performance of its mission paired with operational soundness and constant visionary development. We have grown from a circle of friends and volunteers to advisors, advocates and stewards of that vision.

Like any institution growing from the ground up, the challenges are surrounding the ability to sustain the level of care we are providing, while growing to meet the need of the community. There is a constant need for more supporters and members emeritus to grow with us. Whether it be addressing the complexities of sharing the message in media, human resources and operations, navigating the legal landscape or grant writing, we have risen to the occasion, but look to add true experts to our team as growth continues.

Thank you for your consideration and support!