Youth leadership workshop

Times Reporter

 

The local drug coalition, Strathmore Wheatland Addiction Team, SWAT, recently hosted a leadership opportunity for Senior High students.  The Strathmore chapter of SWAT has been in existence since the spring of 2007.  A number of different organizations in Strathmore have members who are involved with SWAT, including the RCMP and a town councillor. “Our particular drug coalition is targeting prevention more than anything and we know from research that kids that have a lot….personal assets, like good leadership ability are less likely to misuse alcohol or use drugs,” said Crystal Wahl, family school liaison worker at Holy Cross Collegiate, HCC, and a SWAT member.  

Students from HCC spent a day at a “Youth Leadership Journey Workshop” learning leadership skills by working with horses and Lori Thompson, a trained professional at Inner Equine Journeys.  A number of students participated in this special event, including Lisa Simenoff, who attends grade 12 at Holy Cross Collegiate. 

“I had not been around horses before. I was a bit nervous at first, but you can’t let that be the prime focus, otherwise the horse will sense you are nervous,” said Simenoff.  

She said once she was able to pet and groom and clean underneath the hoof, she could feel better communication between the horse and herself.

“It was a fantastic feeling when I was able to get the horse to follow me without a rope or reins. This can only be achieved when you have established proper communication with the horse.” 

“I learned better communication and leadership skills between myself and the horse; you cannot make the horse follow you or do what you want it to do unless you are communicating one on one,” said Simenoff. 

Towards the end of the day, Simenoff said, they had to group into teams of three and get each of the four horses into the four corners. It was more complicated than they had initially thought it would be, and she said they had to use a lot of communication with each other and the horses. They eventually managed to get three of the four horses into the corners.

“All of the skills that I learned can also be used for communicating with people. I definitely would do this again and would recommend these workshops to others,” said Simenoff. 

SWAT members have done surveys in the schools asking youth about their alcohol and drug patterns. They have also held different contests in the schools including a poster contest. 

“Anything that increases the kids personal developmental assets, like self confidence, would make them less likely to choose to misuse alcohol or drugs and so we felt that it definitely fit with our mission statement,” said Wahl.