Equine-assisted activities and therapies include a range of innovative treatment approaches consisting of activities with horses in order to promote the physical and mental health of children. The main objective of this master's thesis was the evaluation of equine-assisted activities in the Community Youth Programs which are provided by the Centre for Social Work Ljubljana Moste - Polje. The first part of the thesis brings the reader’s attention to the period of childhood and adolescence, the challenges of families and young people, the importance of leisure time and the role of social workers in helping the youth. This is followed by a presentation of equine-assisted activities and the Community Youth Programs. In the research part of the thesis, we evaluated the equine-assisted activities. The focus in this second part is on assessing the effort, process, achievement of goals and intentional and unintentional effects of the activities. We include a detailed description of the history and development of equine-assisted activities, and touch upon the preparation efforts, funding and accessibility. Moreover, we also present important aspects with regard to participants, the professional work, dates and location selection, equipment and facilities. Afterwards, equine-assisted activities are presented with regard to the methods used and the interactions between the participants. The last part of the thesis presents the Community Youth Programs’ objectives and provides an evaluation of the role of equine-assisted activities in achieving those objectives. Finally, we also discuss the intentional and unintentional effects that activities with horses have on the lives of the participants.
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