Pawsitive Works is making a measurable difference in the lives of at risk youth.
Our program provides at risk youth with behavior skills that are linked to increased school attendance, improved community relations and decreased problem behaviors. The program increases self-concept and mindfulness and positively affects empathy through the care and training of homeless behaviorally challenged dogs.
Pawsitive works has implemented the program into several communities (insert link to sites here)and measures the effectiveness through rubrics, pre/post tests, a control group and statistics provided by juvenile agencies and schools and is collaborating with The Peabody Research Institute to further develop data needed to support continued and increased use of animal assisted interventions.
Over the past three years 98% of the youth we serve who are on probation have not broken the law or violated their probation during the program. Similarly, over 95% of the dogs in our program are adopted!
How do we know it works?
Our measurement tools provide us with the outcomes that allow us to “show” our recipient organizations that canine intervention is successful for both youth and dogs. Our eyes, ears and hearts tell us that the human-animal bond is powerful. When we see angry, withdrawn youth begin to smile, to ask us to watch “their” dog complete a request for behavior and when they share with us what they have learned – we KNOW how wonderful Pawsitive Works is!
We believe our efforts are successful because of the involvement of dogs. Dogs who do not judge, who capture the hearts and attention of struggling youth. Dogs who desperately need and seek the attention and enrichment the youth can provide.
Many shelters lack the staff and/or funding to provide training and/or enrichment programs to the dogs housed. The training, love and attention the dogs receive who are in the program is beneficial. Pawsitive Works helps these overlooked and harder to adopt dogs become more adoptable, to highlight them in media efforts and to bring awareness of their needs to the general community.
We celebrate the completion of each program session with a graduation ceremony. We love watching the youth “hand over” their training dogs to new owners.
Truly amazing… heartwarming and life changing… Pawsitive Works!
Volunteers make this possible. Help us make a difference in shaping both ends of the leash. The Volunteer page has all the information you need to get started.
