Horses Healing the Hood
May 27, 2026 @ 12:00PM — 1:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) Add to Calendar
: PO Box 23367 Chagrin Falls, OH 44022 Get Directions
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Horses Healing the Hood, A Community Engaged Evaluation of Equine Assisted Interventions for Urban Youth Mental Health
Join HHRF and Daryl L. Fletcher Sr on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at Noon (ET) as we identify practical, evidence informed elements of equine assisted sessions that support self regulation, communication, and confidence for urban youth and understand a feasible, community engaged evaluation design that programs can adopt to document outcomes with limited resources. Participants will take away a fidelity and cultural responsiveness checklist that improves implementation quality across diverse settings.
Cities concentrate both opportunity and adversity. Youth in under resourced neighborhoods often carry chronic stress, trauma exposure, and limited access to sustained, trust based supports. Equine assisted services are promising for building regulation, connection, and confidence, yet many programs lack culturally responsive designs and practical evaluation methods suitable for community settings. Horses Healing the Hood addresses this gap by pairing an accessible session model with an evaluation toolkit that small and mid sized programs can implement without extensive research infrastructure. Establishing clear fidelity markers, safety procedures, and outcome metrics is essential for participant wellbeing, program credibility, and long term sustainability. Moreover, community engaged approaches ensure that families, educators, and local partners shape goals and definitions of success. By presenting a replicable framework and early lessons learned, this webinar advances the field’s capacity to reach underserved populations with high quality equine assisted interventions, while contributing to a shared evidence base that is equitable, transparent, and practice informed.
About our Presenter:
Daryl L. Fletcher Sr. is the Founder and Executive Director of SOOFA Ranch, a 501(c)(3) equine center serving metro Atlanta youth, families, and veterans through equine assisted learning and therapy. An ESMHL trained Equine Specialist and the author of Horses Healing the Hood, Daryl designs community anchored programs that build communication, confidence, and character while advancing mental health literacy in underserved neighborhoods. Under his leadership, SOOFA Ranch delivers school partnerships, group therapy, and workforce readiness initiatives that blend horsemanship with evidence informed social emotional curricula. His outreach has been recognized by regional partners and national supporters, and his teams routinely collaborate with licensed clinicians, educators, and community organizations to ensure safety, fidelity, and impact. Daryl’s mission is simple, make the barn a bridge, so life skills practiced with horses transfer to home, school, and work.