SOAR Initiative
Our Story
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Shared Stories, Shared Strengths, Shared Growth:
Our Founder & Community
SOAR’s founder, Angela Hopson, experienced chronic homelessness herself as a youth and young adult and is a former foster youth. She attributes this lived experience as a strength that has allowed authentic connection with other humans facing struggles of their own - afforded her discernment, and a unique understanding on pathways “out.”
It also made her aware of challenges that result from the trauma people experiencing crisis often navigate alone, allowing for a trauma-informed approach to connections, early on.
During undergraduate study, Angela worked with the NIna Mason Pulliam Scholars, supporting students from the foster care system, adults with dependents living below the poverty threshold, and those with disabilities, learn how to navigate college life, its demands, and successfully achieve their higher education/degrees.
Deeply passionate about how higher education transformed her own life and provided a foundation, sense of community – and then working with students with profound stories of their own – was a huge inspiration.
Hoping to positively impact the strength of basic education some students arrive to college with, she pursued law school at Indiana University, and received her Juris Doctor in 2012.
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It was post-graduation where she began her professional work with humans and pets in crisis.
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Rooted in Love, Reaching for Growth: A Framework Built on the Lived Experiences of People & Pets in our Communities.
SOAR took root in 2014, when Angela began working for Horizon House as a Street Outreach Professional, visiting homeless encampments as part of our city’s “Blueprint to End Homelessness”. As a member of this team, chartered by the city, staff worked with unhoused individuals to connect them to resources, remove barriers to accessing services, and encourage engagement in supports that could help get individuals healthy, off the streets, and safely into housing.
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Angela observed many people living on the streets had pets through hardships, and that no programs existed to serve them. Initially she just took out Ziploc bags of food. flea meds, supplies - but as the needs of people and pets were better understood, she began investing her own income into providing basic vetting - spay/neuter, vaccinations. ​
Utilizing social media, she found there was an amazing network of people in her community that wanted to support these efforts – not just for animal care and supplies – but for housing and pet deposits, application fees, licenses, expenses for uniforms needed for work - any support that could be the difference maker for someone trying to improve their lives.
Organizations and individuals from social services, hospitals, recovery and mental health facilities, shelters, housing services, human AND animal medicine also became collaborative teammates, irreplaceable partners in the work.
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Supporting people WITH their pets, establishing authentic trust, effectively improved engagement of those individuals/families in programs - improving their health and stability – and chronically homeless clients and their companion/working animals, began to get successfully housed. As they moved in, got settled and more secure - they made connections with neighbors, their communities – referring other pet owners who were housed – but still vulnerable – to our services. This began the framework for SOAR’s Street Outreach Program.
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SOAR strategically vet every animal at each camp location in the city - so health & safety of pets, validating ownership, proof of vetting, interventions/ transitions were not compounding issues for owners, nor a barrier to securing housing. A few years in, a local veterinarian, Dr.Leslie Brooks, reached out with shared interest in helping people and pets. Having her on the outreach team allowed SOAR to improve access to vet care and remove even more barriers for person and pet. Together, with volunteers, we began canvasing strategic locations, responding to requests for help from individuals and our community partners.
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We worked with the goal to provide supports to prepare folks for housing, keep them successfully housed, improve care practices/health, address pet-centered challenges in housing, and support needed vet care to prevent unnecessary surrender, euthanasia, or displacement from housing for people and pets. We focused proactive preventative care and education, and any needed triage.
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This began the framework for SOAR’s Access to Vet Care Program, and Diversion/Retention efforts.
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SOAR provided basic vetting to every cat and dog in Indianapolis homeless camps in our early years and then shifted focus to new-to-homelessness people/pets, hoping to reduce the time spent experiencing crisis, and prevent chronic or reoccurring traumas.
In 2016 our team was contacted by a social service agency about a man living in an abandoned building who had become homeless after becoming ill, diagnosed with cancer, and subsequently losing his job. He needed a life-saving surgery and inpatient medical treatment for at least six weeks – but was refusing - facing death – because he was afraid of losing his beloved dog while he accessed that needed care.
We committed to housing that dog during his hospitalization - our first foster - and dad was able to access the care he needed and focus on his own health. When he was released and had secured housing, he came and reclaimed his dog. Both successfully moved into their new apartment, and never looked back.
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This began the framework for SOAR’s Crisis Response Fostering Program. ​
​​​From Crisis to Connection; Improving our Impact by learning from those we serve.
​Preserving the human-animal bond through crisis across a variety of services & programs has taught our team that if person and pet are considered as a family unit, they are more likely to be connected to services, stay engaged, and progress through successfully to housing or improved health, than those where the bond is severed or ignored. When we connected with people through their pets, on their home turf, we often got more insight into issues both were facing that would likely be missed in a clinical setting.
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Many humans have barriers to accessing programs meant to improve their outcomes because of their pet ownership and a real fear of losing their animal.
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Frequently, for people in crisis, their cat or dog is their world and only friend – the reason they face another day. This is especially true with our veterans, others we serve who find themselves more isolated due to age, medical/mental health, chronic health issues and disability.
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We continue learning from the strengths and vulnerabilities of those we meet. What they have taught us has allowed us to grow, improve our services and impact, add programs that promote health, remove barriers to access, and strengthen supports offered. What started out as small bags of pet food has transformed into an innovative organization with a strong focus on human and animal health, access and navigation of services, trauma reduction, development of intensive support networks, proactive system responses, and strong collaboration with our network of human services, hospitals, and animal welfare partners.