TENDER LITTLE HEARTS MINI TALES

Tender Little Hearts Mini Tales is registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission and received its 501(c)3 nonprofit organization designation in 2019, tax ID #83-4236909. We have provided over 18,000 hours of volunteer service, providing 3-4 program visits each week, to enrich the lives of children, adults, and seniors in Arizona since its inception.

Tender Little Hearts Mini Tales has a unique niche as a literacy promotion program. We transport our minis around the Valley without a charge to a variety of child advocacy centers, libraries, schools, anywhere a child can benefit from our reading services. Our unique and innovative outreach is the only equine-based nonprofit offering an onsite reading program to these types of facilities. Our organization only incorporates qualified miniature equine teams to provide these reading services. Our program not only promotes literacy and encourages reading, we offer comfort, joyfulness, empowerment, self-esteem and unconditional love while interacting with our miniature therapy horses and donkeys.

Tender Little Hearts Mini Tales promotes literacy and offers reading opportunities for children of all ages. We provide a safe, empowering environment to spur on literacy growth. We bring our qualified therapy minis to libraries, schools, foster homes and child advocacy centers. Our programs promote literacy among young readers which will increase their ability to be more beneficial to their future family and society in general. Our programs inspire and cultivate a love of reading at an early age. Children who value books are motivated to read on their own, will likely continue to practice independent reading throughout the rest of their lives, thereby enhancing their learning abilities and increasing their knowledge which enhances their skills.

The outcome of our programs is to promote personal development and positive life choices. By providing our literacy promotion program, we meet children where they are in their reading journey and encourage them to become a confident reader through the reading experience with the mini equines. The child builds confidence with an understanding listener, one who doesn’t criticize, one who encourages the child to continue to read with the outcome goal of improving their reading level.

Mini Tales increases a child's vocabulary, helps instill moral values and lessons and can improve their conversations with others. These are just some of the wonders of children reading aloud as well as being read to. This simple act of reading aloud practically works like a magic multivitamin in the lives of kids. Reading aloud imparts many tangible benefits to a children's mind and character, but the more intangible rewards are equally important: it's just plain enjoyable to see the delight on a child's face when they succeed and are able to orally read to the miniature equines.