PROGRAMS     Using a unique methodology combining nature, animals and the arts, AAI provides interactive, individually designed programs for groups of elders and youth in hospitals, special needs schools and nursing homes. The goal is to use hands-on exploration of nature and animals to build connections between people and the environment. This connection can have direct benefits. As people develop curiosity and a sense of wonder and place, they become more engaged with each other and their community.       Over the years AAI has built solid relationships with its clients. At each site, AAI provides programs regularly, usually once or twice a month, offering consistency and continuity to the people we serve. For each program we consider the needs and histories of the participants, developing a theme that provides opportunities for clients to see connections between themselves and the natural world. Program goals include fostering respect and appreciation for others, increasing self-esteem, aiding in psychological assessments, and building connections with nature.     In designing a day's program, we start with the season. Next we choose an environment and then work from there, adding secondary themes, such as animal migration or seed distribution. We use natural materials like rocks, logs, grasses or shells to create an environment in the institution. We may bring indoors a meadow in fall, a salt marsh during winter, or a forest's edge in spring. The animals we bring are incorporated into these representations of environments, so that the animal's natural context becomes clear. For example, a rabbit is seen in a meadow, or a stone wall is assembled and individuals explore the life that surrounds a stone wall. Brought indoors, the meadow or the marsh or the forest's edge can gently transform the institutional setting with a sense of the wild.         Our programs can have a profound impact on participants. Children who previously abused or killed animals have become active caretakers of animals and stewards of the environments at their schools. Other children who felt unable to learn in a traditional manner, found the object based exploration and interaction allowed them to build confidence in their ability to learn. Elders who had been isolated by difficulty communicating or through depression have found nature to be stimulating and universal in its language, and have shared their interests and knowledge with others.         These changes inspire the staff at these institutions to pursue in-house projects to build unity between staff and participants. At one site the staff began taking morning walks and gathering natural materials to bring indoors to individuals, this led to greater staff interaction and collaboration. A testimony to the success of the programs are the requests from institutions and participants for return visits, year after year.