Our Legacy – Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers
Formerly known as Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers, we provided help and touched hearts for over forty years.
Monkey Helpers – A History of Extraordinary Partnerships
Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers was founded in 1979 to raise and train capuchin monkeys to provide daily in-home assistance to people living with mobility impairments.
The organization supported service monkeys and their human partners with interactive mentoring and close supervision of each monkey’s behavioral, nutritional, and veterinary needs. The animals were trained free of charge with the help of private donations.
Lives Were Changed
Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers helped adults with spinal cord injuries and other mobility impairments across the United States live more independent, engaged lives. This was accomplished by providing clients with a unique service animal: a highly trained
capuchin monkey to help with their daily tasks. These animals brought more than just a willing set of nimble hands to their clients. They also brought companionship, joy, and the renewed sense of purpose that comes from taking responsibility for the health and well-being of another creature. For over 40 years we:
- raised, trained, and matched the monkeys with carefully chosen clients;
- provided extensive coaching and customized in-home training at the start of each placement;
- oversaw each monkey’s lifelong behavioral, nutritional, and medical needs;
- provided ongoing active support and mentoring for every partnership; and,
- placed post-service monkeys in loving Special Care Homes or brought them back to the Monkey Living Center where they are well cared for.
Creating a Healthy, Happy Environment at the Alison Payne Monkey Living Center
After many years of service, our capuchin monkeys retire. We have committed to caring for each monkey until the end of their life. Thus, as the monkeys return from service, we are providing a safe, nurturing, and age-appropriate environment here in Boston, where they are loved and cared for in their post-service years.
The Alison Payne Monkey Living Center provides climbing structures and activities designed with an aging population of capuchins in mind. It is a place where our older monkeys and our monkeys with special medical needs are welcomed and protected. It is a place where they can play with their friends and make new ones! Somewhere they can find a sunbeam to nap in, or a lap to cuddle in; a place that all our monkeys can call home.
Watch our videos of our monkeys at play or learn more about our original program through the video series Monkeys In A Minute.
How You Can Support Our Monkeys
If you would like to provide support to our aging post-service monkeys, please check out these options. We appreciate your continuing support of our beloved capuchin monkeys.
When you symbolically adopt a monkey, you are supporting housing, food, vet care, toys, healthy treats, and snuggly blankets for our capuchins.
Make a one-time gift of $144 or $12 per month, and we will send you exclusive footage of our monkeys at play on a quarterly basis.
Make a gift of $1,000, and you will be invited to join an animal care staff member and a monkey in a virtual meeting.
Other Ways to Give
For more information, please contact us.
Phone: (617) 787-4419