Hunter Equine Learning
“We tried a long list of lenders. Charity Bank Australia was the first one that asked what the young people needed rather than what the paddocks were worth.”
Equine-assisted learning charity
Maitland, New South Wales
Hunter Equine Learning works with young people who have stopped attending school — some excluded, some too anxious to walk through the gate. Sessions with the horses do what a classroom could not, and referrals from schools and youth services across the Hunter kept arriving. The charity was turning away more young people than it could take.
The limit was the site. Two paddocks meant the horses could only work a certain number of hours before the ground needed rest, and there was no indoor space at all. Rain cancelled sessions, and a cancelled session for a young person who has taken weeks to trust the place can undo the whole relationship.
With a loan from Charity Bank Australia the charity fenced and watered additional paddocks on land it already held, and built a learning centre beside them — an all-weather arena, a room warm enough to sit in, and a small kitchen where sessions start and end. It also put in a safe, level path from the car park so young people using wheelchairs could reach the horses for the first time.
The charity now runs sessions year-round instead of losing the wet months, and works with roughly twice as many young people each term. Schools report that most participants return to some form of study or training; several have come back as volunteers, and two have gone on to traineeships with local stables. The learning centre is also used by a carers' group two evenings a week, which has brought the charity into contact with families it had never reached.
The charity approached Charity Bank Australia after a run of conversations that stalled on the same point: an education charity with a herd of horses does not fit a standard lending template. The bank sent someone to walk the paddocks, took the time to understand the referral model and the income behind it, and stayed in touch through the build. The charity's board describes it as the first time a lender treated its programme as the asset.
“We tried a long list of lenders. Charity Bank Australia was the first one that asked what the young people needed rather than what the paddocks were worth.”
Petra Nowak, Founder and Program Director of Hunter Equine Learning
About Charity Bank Australia
Charity Bank Australia is the loans and savings bank owned by and committed to supporting the social sector. We use our savers’ money to lend to housing, education, social care, community and other social purpose organisations across Australia.
Nothing in this article constitutes an invitation to engage in investment activity nor is it advice or a recommendation and professional advice should be taken before any course of action is pursued.
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