Feed Room Renovation

Description

Stable Life supports disadvantaged young people and their families in the Scottish Borders who are experiencing personal challenges in their lives. By utilising Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) and Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT), we help young people to look at their current situation and learn to develop positive coping strategies, discover a sense of self, learn transferable life skills and look to a healthier and happier future with empowered choice, aspiration and dreams. 

Our day-by-day operational purpose is to improve the health and well-being of these young people through 1:1 or group sessions and offer safe and confidential environments where we look to bring out and reinforce young people’s resilience and adaptability, supporting them in making rational, safe and healthy choices. The sessions use the horse and a peaceful space as a tool to build up positive and trusting relationships, encouraging responsibility and increase confidence by positive reinforcement in achievable tasks. The sessions incorporate ground work with the horse as well as a riding lesson and specific activities covering issues such as anger management, communication, relationships, positive thinking, managing emotions, teamwork, building resilience, gaining coping strategies and giving the young people the ability to deal with their issues and make informed choices. Our young people develop mentoring relationships that improve self-esteem and confidence, improve mental health and well-being – reducing self-harm and risk of suicide and develop coping strategies to reduce anxiety and manage anger. They negotiate conflict among their peers and develop an understanding that their decisions have consequences.

The sessions run once a week - group for 2 hours and 1:1 for 1 hour and the young person will attend once a week. The group session is a 17-week programme and 1:1 sessions a 10-week programme. The group sessions consist of a maximum of six young people, two Project Workers or a Project Worker and volunteer.

We have been delivering Stable Life since 2008 and have become very experienced and professional in our delivery. We have a proven and well-respected reputation for delivering quality work and making a difference in the life’s’ of the young people and families we support.  In 2013, we took on a long-term lease of a local riding centre  (currently till 2032), which has enabled us to generate commercial income through various equine activities to help support the work we do. Since then we have also incorporated peer volunteering and developed our services further to include qualifications in Horse Care and Rural Skills as well as being able to offer transitional work placements, supported work experience and volunteering opportunities enhancing the young people’s journey through Stable Life and their path to success.
 

We would like to renovate a current feed room into an office space that can be used by our staff, young people, customers, volunteers and visitors to our centre. We would make into office space and a small shop - we have a number of merchandise items that we sell, having the space to display some of the merchandise will also help us raise funds for the charity.

It will be where staff can meet and greet everyone as they arrive at the centre - at the moment we tend to gather in our tack room which is a cold, unwelcoming space that has certainly seen better days. It will also provide a warm, friendly space for small meetings.

Dimensions of room:
Floor dimensions 540cm x 250cm
Door 1 - 180cm x 95cm
Door 2 - 185cm x 90cm
Window 1 - 126cm x 30cm
Window 2 – 126cm x 38cm
 

What we require:
1.    Insulation for the walls and roof of the room
2.    Plasterboard for the walls and ceiling
3.    The floor of the room is concrete but not level so help to level this off
4.    Plaster for the walls and ceilings
5.    Re-Wiring for a couple of wall sockets/wall sockets and light/light switch
6.    Two new doors
7.    2 new windows
8.    Shelving
9.    Desk space
10.    Paint
11.    Tradesmen to carry out the work – builder, joiner, electrician, plasterer/decorator

If you can support Stable Life with any part of this project, please get in touch.