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QUICK START GUIDE FOR ICS This is a brief overview to get you started - more in depth information is also available. Location - Ranch/Farm • • • • • •
Two to five acres will work fine Small arena or other enclosed area for Horse Trust Exercises Ample Parking, Porta Potty, Shade Designated area for Mechanical Bull, Lunch, Fall of Faith and Team building Signed Letter of Understanding from the Ranch owner outlining our agreement Signs of the Equine Activity Law posted around the property
Your Team Putting together a great team can be the difference between success and failure. Trying to do it alone is no fun and you will burn out quickly. So find folks that are passionate about what we are doing and that you love being around. The rewards will be endless. Wranglers One Wrangler per three children Experience working with and handling a horse on the ground Back Round check if Wrangler is not known Preferably Men, Woman and folks of different ethnicity I encourage younger folks to volunteer. Kids that are younger than 18 years of age need to be cleared through me and have legal guardian sign a release form. • Get a commitment from your wranglers that they will be attending no later than 2 weeks before the event and send the information to me.
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Volunteers • One Volunteer for every three children • Back Round check if Volunteer is not known • Preferably Men, Woman and folks of different ethnicity • In choosing your volunteers look for those that are kind, pleasant to be around, interested in the kids and willing to follow up with the kids after they leave the event. Get a commitment from your volunteers they will be attending no later than 2 weeks before the event and send the information to me. 1
2 The Children The kids that we work with usually come from Church Youth Groups, Boys and Girls clubs, Big Brother and Big Sister, Department of Children Services, Foster Homes and Group Homes. We can also help you get the kids. Honestly, any kid will benefit from doing our program. Let’s just get kids.
Chaperones There must be a least two chaperones that come with the kids. These chaperones are encouraged to participate as volunteers and helping with the event. Major discipline problems are handled by the Chaperones.
ICS Forms/Letters • Release Forms signed and mailed back TWO WEEKS prior to the event, or the event will be rescheduled. • The Master Sheet should be sent along with the Parent/Guardian letter to your contact at the Organization you are working with. Make sure all forms are completed. • Make sure that the folks in charge of the facility know that a letter from each child about their experience needs to be written and sent back to us. • Please make sure that you send me the contact info of the person you are working with so I can introduce myself and answer any questions. ICS Rep Clinician has… • • • • • • • • •
Read, understood and can apply the ICS material. The ability to facilitate event from start to finish. I will be there for the first one. ICS wranglers and volunteers are committed and ready to go. Received signed RELEASE FORMS two weeks before the event. Received a personal note from the kids no later than two weeks before event Received information from parent/guardian about the child attending Familiarize yourself with the Videos on ICS Rep Channel – Youtube. Familiarize yourself with the One Day Event write up. ICS REP agrees to do 4 ICS events a year
Insurance If the location provides the insurance, make sure you get a copy of the Certificate, that we are on the Cert as Additionally Insured and send it to me before the event. If the location needs a Cert showing that we have insurance for that day, contact me and let me know. I will send you a Certificate of Insurance.
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3 Fundraising/Community Donations Even though the out of pocket costs to put on an event is minimal, there are some costs that we need to raise money for i.e. promotional materials, insurance, portable toilets - All the little things that can come up. That is why it is so important to get community involvement. Contacting local merchants and letting them know that we are here helping the community and getting them active and interested with what we are doing with the kids. Pam Markovitz will help with securing donations in your area. She is on Facebook on our ICS page. Promotion Promotion can make or break a location so we are constantly promoting. The easiest ways that I have found and no cost to us is through FaceBook and Twitter. Get as many of your friends to be on your page. Emails are great way to let the newspapers, radio and television stations aware of what we are doing. Remember those outlets get bombarded so keep on them. Then there is always regular mail. When in doubt promote, promote promote. We have brochures and other items that can help. Opinion Leaders Community gets involved when their opinion leaders get involved. The Circles that we concentrate on are Political, Religious and Community. You can fine all the info you need on the net with Google as far as Political. A lot of Churches have websites and the ones that don’t usually have email addresses. Make yourself known. Let them know what you are doing. Saving kid’s lives. Community leaders pertain to those individuals that are in business in the area. Keeping in touch with the Big players as well as the Mom and Pops really can be helpful. The One-Day Then we get to the actual event. There is a full write up that I will be sending you that will go into great detail about The One Day and other info that will help you be successful. Remember the more you read, listen and watch, the more you will understand. If you get time, check out our YouTube channel, ICS4Clinicians. There are quite a few tutorials that will help you plus other videos that will exemplify the Spirit of ICS.
Again thanks for being there for these kids and welcome to the Adventure. Michael McMeel
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