The goal our Leg-Up Program is to help youth in the Kansas City area develop and strengthen the following life skills:
It is our goal that once these skills are developed, each individual will leave the program with skills to help them improve relationships within their family and community.
We use horses in ground activities (no riding) to help break down the barriers these kids have built around themselves and reduce the social pressures and remove the masks they use to protect themselves. They enter the program angry and guarded, but underneath, the horses help us find their charm, courage, resiliency and laughter.
Many teens residing in facilities and/or group homes would benefit from this program, but their funding is extremely limited.
If you would like to learn more about how you can sponsor a child or a group, please click on How You Can Help.
Our primary clients are youngsters who, because of their life situations, have become hard to reach and for whom traditional counseling approaches don't work very well.
The typical EQUUS kid has often been in an abusive lifestyle, can find it difficult to trust others, be impatient, non-verbal, physical, indifferent, hopeless and have a sense of abandonment and lack of empowerment to make a positive life change.
In short, these are kids who life has dealt more difficulties than resources.
Our primary clients are youngsters who, because of their life situations, have become hard to reach and for whom traditional counseling approaches don't work very well.
The typical EQUUS kid has often been in an abusive lifestyle, can find it difficult to trust others, be impatient, non-verbal, physical, indifferent, hopeless and have a sense of abandonment and lack of empowerment to make a positive life change.
In short, these are kids who life has dealt more difficulties than resources.
