THE EQUUS EFFECT

NATIONAL ACCESS - The VA and Yale University are launching a 16-week pilot study to better understand the impact of our curriculum on a trans-diagnostic sample of veterans. Their request to us and our aim is to open more test sites and eventually, offer this program on a national basis - at military bases and at therapeutic riding centers where veterans and others in transition from one phase of life to the next will be able to 'reboot' for life at home and in their communities.

PROGRAMS FOR MILITARY FAMILIES - IN 2021, we began offering our program to Blue and Gold Star Families. We provided resilience tools to offset the worry and grief that is central to the lives of these families and every person who came to work with us said that our program did just that. Our next goal for 2022-23 is to include the spouses of active duty military personnel because we have learned that the divorce rate among these people is far above the national average, particularly within the ranks of the special forces. These curricula adhere to the same principles and tools for self-management and emotional regulation as our primary offering, but would focus on specific issues that couples and families must face together.

We would like our program to be available to every person (and his or her significant others) who is/are willing to CHANGE and WORK to become better partners, parents, co-workers and leaders.

FIRST RESPONDERS - These men and women have also experienced significant increases in levels of stress due to the pandemic and the divisions within our country about the role of law enforcement. We started offering our curriculum to First Responders in 2021, and plan to continue to expand that offering in 2022-23 or for as long as we know they can use our tools for resilience and renewal.

FRONTLINE WORKERS - In 2020, we began to offer our curriclum to frontline healthworkers and are now doing so for mental health clinicians who are serving those who serve. We recognize that more and more people are impacted by the traumatic events that have taken us from being safe and secure (for the most part) to extremely vulnerable.

Uncertainty on the battlefield is not dissimilar to the uncertainty all of us face now. THOSE warriors now include us....whether we signed up to serve or not. We aim to give all of these brave men and women a chance to renew their energy, restore their ability to regulate their emotions and of course, enjoy the relief that touch brings to any and all of us who need to settle down. We may be serving Warriors from all Walks of Life for a long time, and we are willing and fully intend to do so.

Our strategies include:

TRAINING - Train more facilitators who are qualified to work with veterans, first responders, young people and whoever they feel qualified to serve across the country. We include peer counselors and clinicians who are qualified to become facilitators.

We plan to include graduate programs for veterans and people in recovery to train as facilitators and current trainers to teach others so that we can build our capacity to serve more men and women.

FACILITY IMPROVEMENT - Make our own facility available for weekend retreats so that we can spend more concentrated time with couples, families, clincians and those who sacrifice for those who serve.

This would also allow us to train more facilitators here at our location, offer workshops for clinicians and continue to serve more active duty military whose schedules require more flexibility on our part. their families. Revenue generating programs for people not in uniform would add at least $15,000 to our tuition fund for veterans.

We now have 16 facilitators who have graduated from our training program and we are developing a course for them to train other trainer across the country.

We are hosting a research pilot study through the VA and Yale that is scheduled to begin in July 2022. While we are conducting that study here, the Director of Clinical Psychology at the VA has asked us to identify and train facilitators at other test sites. We now have six that are suitable and will be looking for more as the country continues its process of opening up.

We have also been invited to present our program and preliminary results from this research study at the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, Int'l (P.A.T.H. Int'l) conference in St. Louis this October. We are planning to use this venue and exposure to enhance our appeal to potential trainees in other parts of the country.

While we are able to serve those who need our time and attention in the areas we serve now, we will soon need more staff, more trainers and more volunteers at new locations as we move into other geographic areas.

We have three instructors and administrative staff at our main facility in Sharon to train new facilitators, volunteers and serve our current populations. We expect instructors at other locations to take our train-the-trainers program and to launch new facilitators within their organizations once they have graduated from our advanced training program.

We have grown substantially in the past 10 years:
from serving 21 vets in 2012, to over 1,500 men and women in uniform who serve or support those who serve us here and abroad.

We have moved from 1 location in 2013 to 8 at the end of 2021

We have strong relationships with Veterans Administration Healthcare
Systems and Veterans Centers in Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts

We work with the VA as well as with two national Veteran Service Organizations - Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and Team Red, White and Blue (RWB)

We are teaching the principles and tools of this program as it applies specifically to business situations at the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) provided by the University of Connecticut Graduate School of Business.

We presented our work to at the 29th Annual International Trauma Conference in 2018.

We earn partial support for veterans' tuition by offering fee-based programs to people in the recovery community

We would like support in the form of monetary contributions as well as insight and ideas from veterans in leadership positions in the 'Sea of Goodwill'.