Harnessing Hope awarded $3,600 to bring equine-assisted learning to Mt Vernon High School students

A $3,600 grant will fund mobile equine-assisted learning sessions at Mt Vernon High School this year, district and nonprofit representatives told the Mt Vernon Community School Corp board.

The grant was awarded through a partnership with the Wheel Foundation and the Hancock County Community Foundation and will support Harnessing Hope’s therapeutic riding, driving and equine-assisted learning programming, organizers said.

Dana Hilgert, an English teacher at Mount Vernon High School, and Jennifer Wright of Harnessing Hope described the program during the board’s “good news” segment. Hilgert said the sessions will use trauma-informed approaches, including polyvagal theory and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) strategies, to help students with co-regulation and emotional self-awareness. The program will work with year-long English classes, human resources classes, essential skills and life skills classes, and multilingual learning supports, presenters said.

Wright said Harnessing Hope brings a draft horse for sessions and described the animal’s calming effect: “A horse’s nervous system is five times larger than our own. So that’s why we always feel kind of relaxed when we leave a barn or a horse equine setting.” Hilgert said the work showed measurable changes in students’ emotional regulation during last year’s pilot.

The district will host a photo opportunity with program staff following the presentation. Board members and staff thanked the presenters and noted the program’s fit with district trauma-care practices. No district funding line-item was described in the meeting; the presenters said the grant covers the mobile sessions and was awarded by the Wheel Foundation in partnership with local grantors.