HELP OUR YOUTH LEARN VALUABLE LIFE SKILLS
EmPower U Equine has a unique approach to helping teach valuable life skills to our youth! Here, the horses are the teachers. By utilizing an interactive, hands-on approach through the educational BuildingBlock™ Curriculum, we facilitate teachable moments with a lasting impact. Whether it be building relationships, working on teamwork and communication skills, learning to trust, making choices, or becoming a leader, our horses will provide the youth with an experience that they can draw from in their everyday lives. By doing this, we can help our youth to develop skills for life. Our youth curriculum programs are designed to take place in 8-12 week sessions. This allows our facilitators to keep the learning process growing, by building upon different skills and objectives each week. This ensures the effectiveness of our program, and allow us to track individual advancements in each of our youth.
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This program is an important educational tool that should be considered for youth who are dealing with behavioural issues, suffering from low self-esteem, combating drug abuse, lack communication skills, need to develop leadership or the ability to work with others. As well as, help bully proof our kids, and build strong sports team through our school programs, anti bullying programs and our sports team building events. The benefits are endless when participating in our experiential skills development program. We look forward to partnering with you for success in building life skills for our youth!
"I had fun and I haven’t had fun in a while, I can’t wait to come back."
11 YEARS OLD
WHY DO WE WORK WITH A PREY ANIMAL?
To understand how this process works we must first realize how horses learn and understand the laws of survival. In a horse’s world, the rules are clear, easy to understand and dealt with swiftly when challenged.
As a prey animal, they are sensitive to the stimulus of each participant. They react to the stimulus through body language and participants must adjust their feelings and behaviours to work successfully with the horses. As facilitators listen to a horse’s non-verbal communication, together, they have the ability to walk participants through to finding life-altering change. By understanding why and how horses are aware of our every movement – you will come to know how effective equine-assisted learning programs are to finding success.
HOW DOES THIS LEARNING PROCESS WORK?
Horses in this program are effective teaching tools; immediately responding to what participants do, trained facilitators look for "teachable moments" that horses identify. Quite simply, the horse does the teaching; facilitators are there to offer explanation and provide guidance as they work through the solution.
Horses can magnify an individual’s problem immediately and provide a skilled facilitator with an opportunity to identify an individual’s character and their communication style. Horses don’t overthink a participant’s motive but, horses do challenge their behaviour and leadership.
By including horses in these specially designed educational experiences, equine-assisted specialists have significantly multiplied the participant’s rate of success to self-discovery. Through their intuitive nature and innate sensitivity, horses can provide facilitators with a window into the participant’s learning style.
WHAT IS EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING?
To put it simply, Equine Assisted Learning is a learner based educational, experiential experience with horses. More specifically, Equine Assisted Learning is a horse course with an effective approach to human development that encourages individual and team growth. Participants engage in objectively driven exercises and find themselves learning valuable life skills in a fun and exciting atmosphere. Equine Assisted Learning has proven to be useful, powerful, positive, educational, and creative.
EmPower U Equine emphasizes it’s BuildingBlock™ Curriculum of facilitating life skills through positively reinforced interaction with horses. The horse's jobs are speaking to the clients through their bodies to help bring about the changes that the clients need to make. Exercises are developed to encourage self-confidence through validated, hands-on experiences. Equine Assisted Learning through EmPower U is NOT equine therapy. We do not require a clinical professional with us to do these exercises and programs given to you in your horse course. Equine Assisted Learning works, because the teachers are the horses!
TEACHERS THAT DELIVER RESULTS.
Unlike a traditional classroom setting, here at EmPower U Equine, the horses are the teachers. What better partners in the experiential learning experience than the horse. Horses live in the moment, they don’t judge and they are great listeners that require strong leaders. We focus on safety first and foremost with our youth and our horses, and begin our curriculum ensuring that the student is taught the basics of working with the horses properly. Once the horse feels safe and comfortable with the student, they will form a partnership that will allow the student to get the horse to do what is being asked of it. The facilitators at EmPower U Equine will use these moments to parallel the experience back to real life situations at school, at home and in their individual lives.
Our youth program is not a bandage effect for humans; it's life changing with proven results with a 5-year research study with the University of Calgary, Saskatoon and Regina.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT WORKING WITH HORSES.
We couldn’t think of a better teacher for youth and especially teenagers. Horses are constantly reacting to the environment around them, and they are always listening! They pick up on subtle cues that we as people aren’t always aware we are even giving, through our stimulus. Horses are intuitive and innately sensitive. By partnering our youth with horses, it requires them to learn and listen, as well as be responsible for their behaviour and actions. By including horses in our specifically designed educational experience, it can magnify problems that the youth are experiencing, which gives the facilitators the opportunity to facilitate skill building, while listening to what the horses tell them they need to say or do to move forward, not only in the program, but in their lives. The people solve their own problems because they have the answers inside - they just need help from the horse to find those solutions.
WHAT IF OUR YOUTH WERE EQUIPPED WITH SKILLS FOR LIFE?
It is often said that the eyes of the horse are the window to it’s soul! These magnificent animals can also allow each person their own ability to look inside themselves to resolve problems they are encountering in their lives. Youth who work with horses will have a better opportunity to address underlying issues when they listen to what the horse is saying to them, and in turn will be able to build a set of skills that will help them for life. EmPower U Equine can deliver this through our objectively driven experiential programs.
"We need more creative ways to teach youth. This program does just that! My students will hold this creative and positive learning experience in their memories forever. Thanks again!"
TEACHER
LET'S MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
It has been clearly proven that when we learn through hands-on experiences we are better able to retain those lessons, so what better opportunity to teach life skills then through participation in our skills development youth programs. As a member of The Academy of Equine Assisted Learning and as an approved program through the Calgary Board of Education, our program has been specifically designed to maximize learning opportunities for our participants. We encourage a fun and dynamic learning environment that is guaranteed to engage all participants, while focusing on developing individual skills such as building relationships, communication, problem solving, listening, negotiation, choices, trust and leadership. Let's set the stage to success!
ANTI BULLYING
The best way to help children not become victims of bullies is by teaching them bully proofing skills. Victims of bullies usually exhibit poor communication skills and tend to be left out of activities, leaving them isolated. A child with bullying issues may be just as much a victim in his own life as the child he directs his aggression towards. Our equine life skills development programs are ideal for both the bully, and the bullied, as these programs encourage the growth of social skills, communication skills, emotional, physical, mental and spiritual wellness, self esteem, positive leadership skills, choice-making skills, and responsibility, creativity, and laughter.
SCHOOL PROGRAMS
This specific life skills BuildingBlock™ Curriculum Series is a great alternative to traditional education. Each of our objectively driven exercises are custom designed to maximize learning potential and focus on developing individual skills as youth work through fun interactive group challenges, in an experiential environment. Emphasizing self-responsibility, participative education involves the students in experiences relevant to his or her future and provide the students with the opportunity and methodology of learning from these experiences. Students develop self-reliance, self-confidence, and increased self-esteem, leaving better equipped for their lives at school and home, and for lifelong, continued learning.
YOUTH AT RISK
Our skill building programs are ideal for troubled, at risk youth, or youth that exhibit aggressive behaviour, by: promoting positive leadership skills and decision-making skills; learning to accept responsibility and accountability; instilling empathy and kindness; overcoming barriers to find change; developing relationships; finding opportunity in working together; realizing the benefits associated with the effective communication; and recognizing the value of mutual trust, respect, and personal integrity. The youth that teachers, counsellors, and the principal feel display behavioural issues, or who are withdrawn, will benefit most from the program. The more we involve learners, the more senses are engaged, thereby increasing the probability that they will learn, retain, and apply what they have learned back to real life.
TEAM BUILDING
Innovative, memorable and results-oriented. Give your players the skills training and development to grow for themselves and your team. Our objectively driven team building programs build trust, collaboration and communication in a fun and engaging atmosphere rather than some of the competitive atmospheres of other team bonding options! Your team will see results immediately. Working with horses creates a unique memory that causes the participants to remember the training far longer than if sitting in 'just another classroom'. No riding our teachers, they are with us to provide answers and honest feedback.