The Harmony Institute

Before there was Harmony, the new community in east Osceola County, Florida there was The Harmony Institute, a non-profit charitable organization that provides Harmony with much of its vision.

The Harmony Institute was founded in 1996 by Martha Lentz, a former director of the Orlando Humane Society/SPCA of Central Florida and one of the founders of Harmony, the 11,000-acre, environmentally integrated community that will be home to more than 18,000 people when it is completed in about 15 years. The Harmony Institute is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Site

The Institute owns 100 acres adjacent to the Harmony High School campus which is located directly across US Highway 192 from the community of Harmony and accessible through a walkway from the community town center. It is at this 100-acre site that the Institute's facilities and programs are being developed, starting with a camp for children and other vulnerable members of society who would benefit from therapeutic activities with agricultural animals and gardening.

Mission

The organization's mission is to promote human health and well-being through the interaction of people, animals and the environment. The premise is there are significant health benefits for people who have regular accessibility to animals and nature within built communities. And while science confirms that relationships with animals and nature are good for people, the Institute will strive to determine more exactly how those relationships might positively influence chronic problems such as obesity, anxiety and other health risks. The benefits of these relationships will also be examined as they relate to childhood development, education and ethics.

Raising the "BAR"

To achieve its mission, the Institute has set forth three goals known as "Raising the BAR for Healthier Living."
'B' is building a community environment for healthier living as a natural result of the interactions of humans, animals and the environment.
'A' is the activation of model programs which illustrate the beneficial relationships between humans, animals and the environment.
'R' is the research of community public health outcomes due to facilitated and maximized human-animal-environmental interactions.