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youth empowerment programs
Let's help our youth to build an armour of skills so that they know how to protect themselves and move forward no matter what life throws at them. When our youth learn they consistently have choices, they also learn self-awareness through the powerful teacher, the horse.
These experiential programs for youth are not only educational but have been designed for youth to acquire strength-based life skills (i.e., developmental assets) such as effective communication, enhanced problem-solving, a better understanding of body language, respecting personal boundaries, among others.
These life skills programs, that are approved by the Calgary Board of Education, gives the youths an experience to pull from when they are faced with choices in everyday life as they build strong solid skills working with their teacher. Our youth curriculum programs range between 8-12 sessions. This allows the effectiveness of the course but also to track the advancements in each of the youth within it.
HORSES? what can a 1200 lb teacher do for your YOUTH?
Horses are ideal teachers for youth. They don’t judge, they don’t care about race, size, or gender… Each of us is equal, with each other and with our teachers – the horses. The value of giving young people, especially teenagers, an opportunity to work with horses as their teachers have been proven time and time again.
Our equine assisted learning programming is a unique and powerful way to teach young people who are fortunate enough to participate in Double T Ranch’s Youth Interactive Development Programs. Equine Assisted Learning acts as an important educational tool to help develop empathy and kindness, as well as help overcome behavioural disorders, low self-esteem, bullying, drug abuse, emotional issues, poor communication skills, and the inability to work with others.
EDUCATIONAL TOOLS THAT DELIVER FAST, EFFECTIVE RESULTS.
Albert Wright studied methods of education extensively and concluded a need for change from the traditional classroom and lecture format to an educational alternative called "participative method." This method focuses on the experiential process of learning rather than the mere transmission of information. Experiential learning has recently been termed "the natural way of learning," and defined as the process by which the experience of the learner is reflected upon, from which new insights emerge.
Once a child is taught the basics of working safely with a horse, he or she can become the leader the horse seeks. When the horse feels safe, cooperation is natural and the youth can easily get the horse to do what is asked of it. Bringing that piece back to their lives as everything is a parallel to how to work with people and themselves in their own lives.
experiential & educational.
The youth participants quickly learn that their teachers, the horses, are unable to judge, scold or lie. This builds a very natural trust that many of today’s youth haven’t had consistently offered to them in their life. Having a horse as a teacher provides the participant instant feedback, clear direction and an opportunity to parallel each lesson to life. The horse allows "loud teachable moments" that the youth attendees will never forget.
All of these experiential programs for youth are not only educational but have been designed for youth to acquire strength-based life skills (i.e., developmental assets) such as effective communication, enhanced problem-solving, a better understanding of body language, respecting personal boundaries, amongst many other skills.
Give our young people the skills necessary to ultimately better prepare them to take on the challenges that life throws at them.
Double T Ranch's youth programs are designed to ensure the learning and retention of important life skills to aid in each youths personal growth. One of the many bonuses of working with horses vs a classroom setting is the component of interactivity because we all learn differently, but we can all take away lessons that we learn through our experiences. Every person has the opportunity to take away lessons learned through their own experiences.
Because of the consistent weekly interactions with their teachers, the horses, the youth will have the ability to continually learn new skills and gain a better understanding of themselves in a safe and trusting environment. Each program has an objective that is interlaced into the next program so that your participants keep learning and building stronger skills each week, hence, creating an armour of skills to take into the world and that is proven to work. This consistency also allows our facilitators to not only ensure the effectiveness of the course but also to track the advancements in each of the youth within it.
Straight from the youth themselves: "It made me feel better about myself, I can do stuff without people judging me." "It made me feel more active." "I thought that if I could do that [horse program], I could do anything."
