Through the Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum, Roisin Moran and her classmates had the opportunity to participate in the grant funded ‘Mind Your Mind’ programme. This unique project offered he the opportunity to take part Equine Assisted Personal Development programme.

Roisin confesses to being initially terrified around horses

Roisin confesses to being initially terrified around horses but through the programme she managed to overcome her fears and develop a really rewarding relationship with her horse, Buddy.

Her facilitator observed,

“It was evident that Roisin had natural leadership skills and was able to act as a team leader within the group, providing positive encouragement and motivation.”

This ability to overcome her fears and her enthusiasm to learn made her the ideal candidate to be a Peer Mentor for the next year’s project “Mentoring Minds”.  Roisin took the lead with peers and shared her experience of equine assisted approaches, sharing the transferable learning she applied into her everyday life.

Through this programme, Roisin stood up a number of times and shared her experience in a room full of people - something she never thought she would have the confidence or courage to do. She told her story on the media and campaigned widely when the project was nominated for the People’s Project nomination from National Lottery Community Fund.

Roisin also applied for the Change Something Fund, where she took the lead in the programme development and is currently recruiting young people aged between 11-14 years to take part in a six week programme over the summer months, which she will also facilitate on.

 Her teacher recently nominated her for Aspirational Learner of the Year Award, which is a UK wide competition and guess what.... she only went and won!