Lead-Up strives to prevent and reduce youth violence with a particular focus on interpersonal violence. We address violence reduction and prevention through positive youth development, focusing on strengthening socio-emotional skills and the mental health and well-being of youth to reduce individual risk factors such as mental health problems, low emotional intelligence, unemployment, and exposure to violence.
At Lead-Up International, our mission is to bridge divides and break cycles of violence and poverty through programs that foster, through interactions with horses, the peaceful leadership and empowerment of youth in order to drive social transformation.
The Lead-Up International program addresses these challenges through a three-stage model: Discovering Non-Violence, the Embodying Peaceful Leadership, and Being Change.
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Discovering Non-Violence
During the Discovering Non-Violence workshops, young people learn to observe and manage their non-verbal communication and emotions through specialised mindfulness exercises and innovative interactions with horses. The heart of these workshops is the Join-Up® exercise; a unique interaction that builds trust and respect between a human being and a horse developed by Monty Roberts. To achieve this Join-Up successfully, young people must demonstrate the 6 core values of Lead-Up, those values are: Emotional regulation, trust, empathy, assertiveness, resilience and peaceful leadership.
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Embodying Peaceful Leadership
The Embodying Peaceful Leadership Program uses an innovative and holistic approach to vocational training, addressing the complex psychological and emotional factors that often prevent at-risk youth from accessing and retaining decent work. This program lasts between 6 weeks and through it, the lessons learned in the initial Lead-Up workshops are strengthened and new skills for work and life are developed.
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Being the Change
Being the Change consists of follow-up and empowerment actions for the Lead-Up Champions to lead and coordinate their own projects, activities and initiatives of social transformation with the direct support of the organisation. This stage allows young people to put into practice what they learned through Lead-Up and thus transform their lives and communities; The activities and initiatives that arise from this stage are considered initiatives associated with Lead-Up International and receive constant monitoring and support.
As of August 2021 Lead-Up International is operating in: Guatemala, USA, Brazil, UK, South Africa, Ireland, Austria, Uruguay and Germany.
FAQs
Why Horses?
Horses are herd animals seeking security and leadership; and they are inherently cooperative and communicative. When the youth demonstrate peaceful, reliable and assertive leadership through their non-verbal communication, the horse communicates trust and respect via his inherent body language and chooses the youth as their leader.
How does Lead-Up International define violence?
Lead-Up International addresses the problem of violence as defined in the World Report on Violence and Health (WRVH), namely: the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.
Lead-Up strives to prevent and reduce interpersonal violence. Interpersonal violence refers to violence between individuals, and is subdivided into family and intimate partner violence and community violence.
What is Join-Up®?
Join-Up® is the non-violent horse training approach discovered by Monty Roberts. Join-Up® is based on a consistent set of principles using the horse’s inherent methods of communication and herd behaviour. Horses are herd animals that seek leadership. In Join-Up® we communicate non-violently and non-verbally with the horses in their gestural language. Join-Up® is based on mutual trust and respect; the horses read our intent and choose to trust us as leaders.
Why focus on Youth Violence?
Youth Violence is considered a global public health problem by the World Health Organization who establishes that “worldwide some 200 000 homicides occur among youth 10–29 years of age each year, which is 42% of the total number of homicides globally each year.”
Youth violence ranges from acts such as bullying and physical fighting, to more severe cases like sexual and physical assault and homicide.
At-risk youth are more vulnerable to becoming involved with youth violence as a victim, offender, or witness.
Why Join-Up®?
To achieve Join-Up® successfully, young people must demonstrate the 6 core values of Lead-Up, those values are: Emotional regulation, trust, empathy, assertiveness, resilience and peaceful leadership.
When the youth learn to manage all levels of their body language and non-verbal communication during Join-Up, the horses provide instant feedback, teaching the youth that if they demonstrate peaceful leadership through their body language they can earn their trust. It is through this that the youth intrinsically discover the power of peaceful leadership through the reward of ‘Joining Up’ with a horse; a result of the correct use of their body language.
Join-Up® is a powerful and transformative experience and, when used in this context, it is an invaluable tool in teaching the power of peaceful leadership and reducing and preventing violence in the community.
How does Lead-Up International address violence?
Lead-Up International addresses violence reduction and prevention through positive youth development, focusing on strengthening socio-emotional health and well-being to reduce risk factors within the individual such as low emotional intelligence, unemployment and exposure to violence (in the community or family).
