TRAIL Blazers
Youth Mentor HorseMANship Program
TRAIL Blazers Youth Empowerment program is a small group mentor horseMANship program focused on empowering children by developing life skills necessary for the TRAIL: Trust, Respect, Adventure, Integrity, and Leadership. This process is about building connected relationships, experiencing, being creative, exploring, problem solving, and discovering practical applications of what they are learning in the moment. Development of life skills such as healthy relationships, confidence, emotional awareness, self-regulation, responsibility, coping and social skills helps children in our program become successful at home, school, and in their communities.
Activities include:
Safety & basic horse care Navigate obstacles & the trail
Ground work Team building & cooperation
Basic riding skills Fun crafts and projects
ENROLLMENT PROCESS
The safety of the students is paramount at HOPE. Our enrollment process is thorough. We make every effort to accept students into our program as quickly as possible.
Application: Complete and submit an application. The link is at the bottom of this page!
New Participant Evaluation: Once the forms have been reviewed you will be contacted to schedule a participant evaluation. Session objectives and goals will be discussed and an Individual Development Plan (IDP) will be created. The facilitator will make a recommendation for program placement according to the participant's goals, abilities, and age.
Placement: The participant will be placed in a class that is appropriate for their goals and needs. We assign participants to classes and activities that help them most!
Enrollment: The participant will then be enrolled for the next available agreed upon term. Additional information will be discussed during enrollment.
Ride, Learn, Grow, Heal! The participant will attend a weekly or biweekly session for 8 weeks for each term of enrollment. Sessions are usually the same day and time each week unless otherwise stated for a specific program.
FEES AND BILLING
Costs: Finding HOPE Therapeutic Riding Center, Inc has taken great care in setting modest and affordable participant fees for our services. It is our desire that no family is unable to participate due to financial circumstances. Thanks to community support, HOPE is able to provide program scholarships based on financial need. Scholarships are full or partial providing program fee assistance. This year we are able to offer a partial scholarship to all families who wish to participate according to the sliding income scale below. We are able to keep our fees affordable through fundraising each year. HOPE does not bill insurance companies or third parties.
We believe our First Responders deserve more than just a discount! HOPE together with Back the Blue Illinois truly appreciates your service and we are putting that appreciation to work. To show gratitude we are offering this program to First Responders and immediate family members 50% off regular fees! It is not a discount, it is a thank you! Sincerely, thank you for the love and sacrifice you provide our community!
Participant Evaluation: A non-refundable evaluation fee of is required at the time of all new participant evaluations.
Re-evaluation: A yearly re-evaluation fee of $25 is due at the beginning of each year and covers form and IDP updates. This fee is added to your first scheduled term.
First Responders Evaluation: $25 is due at time of all new participant evaluations ($100 savings!).
2021 Sessions: (8 classes/session unless otherwise stated)
Winter Session : January 27th – March 20th
Spring Session: March 29th – May 28th
Summer Session: June 7th – July 30th
Fall Session: September 7th – November 12th (8-10 sessions)
(per Term: 8 weeks)
First Responder Fees Evaluation Private Group
Regular Fee $125 $1,000 $600
First Responder Fee $25 $500 $300
*can be paid in full or split into 2 monthly payments
Non First Responder Family Scholarship (per Term: 8 weeks)
EAL- Fee & Sliding Scale Evaluation Private Group
Regular Fee $125 $1,000 $600
$124,999 - $100,000 $100 $920 $520
$99,999 - $80,000 $80 $880 $440
$79,999 - $65,000 $65 $720 $360
$64,999-$50,000 $50 $560 $280
$49,999-$40,000 $40 $400 $200
$39,999-$30,000 $30 $320 $160
$29,999-$20,000 $25 $240 $120
Below $20,000 $20 $160 $80
*can be paid in full or split in 2 monthly payments
Scholarships: HOPE is able to subsidize a portion of sessions to make it affordable for each student. This is available because of our volunteers and fundraising. If the already subsidized fee creates a hardship on a full or temporary basis any individual participating in HOPE programs may apply for additional scholarship funding. An application is required. Additional funding will be determined on a case by case basis by our Scholarship Committee.
Payments: Scheduled sessions will be billed 30 days in advance of the scheduled session. Payment is due prior to the start of each session. Monthly payment plans are available upon request.