Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Cherie Graves

Abstract

Background: The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2022) defines adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as any traumatic event that occurs from birth to 18 years. ACEs can lead to various issues in the child's future, such as health problems, mental illness, substance abuse, and challenges with education and employment (CDC, 2022). Associated barriers that inhibit at-risk youth when transitioning into the workforce include lack of work skills, habits, knowledge about labor rights, realistic job opportunities, and how to pursue employment (Ivzori et al., 2020). Increasing support in their pre-vocational skills can increase their success in employment. Rhew et al. (2019) identifying the following skills as key for successful employment - communication, decision-making, teamwork, relationship-building, critical thinking, time management, responsibility, and accountability.

Purpose: The purpose of this scholarly project was to develop a group-based program using equine and barn tasks to promote the development of these eight work skills. The Making Strides program is intended to bridge the gap between unemployment, transition to work, and development of worker readiness skills for adolescents with ACEs to be successful into adulthood by utilizing both barn tasks and equine.

Methods: A literature review was conducted to understand the effects of ACEs, unemployment rates, the adolescent population, and the benefits of equine therapy and barn tasks. The Ecological Human Performance (EHP) model guided the questions through the literature search and the overall development of the program (Dunn, 2017). ix Results: Making Strides was designed as an occupational therapy-based program utilizing Cole’s Seven Steps with interprofessional collaboration (Cole, 2018). The program is a six-week program that will be held twice a week. Each week is focused on utilizing horses or barn tasks to target one of the eight skills identified by Rhew et al. (2019).

Conclusion: This program gives students the opportunity to build foundational work readiness skills with hands-on learning to enhance each skill utilizing horses and barn tasks. This program also allows students to apply these skills in and outside of the facility for better retention.

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