One of my very favorite things that we get to do is go into Kinsey Youth Center. We are able to partner with another nonprofit, The ARK, and take a version of our programming into the youth housed there.
Once a month we are able to meet with shelter care kids, and once a month we meet with incarcerated youth. We plan a lesson that often revolves around important skills that young people need to discuss and practice. We use the horses to discuss things like: active listening, showing respect, sharing our feelings, valuing others, how to lead well, and how to work as a team. These types of skills are taught more than caught, so we consider it an honor to try and help these young people practice these important life altering skills.
When I ask the residents why they like Narrow Gate coming into the center, the most common answer is some version of,
“I feel better with the horses.”
Several residents attest to the horses decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones. They say that the horses help them to stay calm and practice their coping skills.
There are a couple residents that stand out as leaders. I asked them to comment about our programming. They said things like, “The horses are a good thing to help us calm down and express emotions with other people… I get that calmness from being around them… Horses help me feel happy… Animals are a good stress reliever… Seeing them is something new and different for us.”
It is a joy that we have to get to know these young people. We don’t know or ask about their personal lives or why they ended up there, so I can’t speak to that. But, I can speak to who I get to know.
There is a girl who likes basketball and makeup and feels really nervous in groups of people. There is another girl who likes math and TV and can’t get enough of Petunia.(Petunia is a beautiful palomino mini who loves young people.) There’s a teen boy who speaks so softly it’s hard to hear him. There’s a young man there who likes horses and fishing. And most of them like to braid the horses’ manes!
The tough exteriors that we so often see in young people are hiding the young person who is, in many ways, just like us.
I love to see these individuals!
-Emily Pier