As some of you may know, People and Animal Wellbeing Services were awarded £10,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund last year! This was an amazing success for us and all the children and young people we knew we would be able to offer support to.
Supporting Our Communities
We want our local communities to thrive, and children and young people are the future of our communities. Our work build’s on children and young people's strengths and helps them to better connect to their peers, families and communities.
The Statistics
So far we are supporting young people in 4 schools with weekly wellbeing or counselling canine sessions. We are so proud to already be supporting 21 individual young people in these schools using practical Animal Assisted Interventions to encourage emotional autonomy, creating regulation strategies, life plans, independence and build self-esteem. There have been 180 sessions so far that these children and young people have accessed and we couldn't be happier that we've been able to continue to make a difference on a weekly basis all with the help of our fluffy friends!
Why It’s Important
Our canine-based therapeutic interventions help children and young people gain the skills to understand, talk about and manage challenging feelings when problems start to become overwhelming and can help young people to promote and maintain good mental health from childhood into adulthood and beyond. Which is why this funding is so important to us! We are able to offer schools a heavily subsidised rate for our services so that we can provide support to those who would otherwise not be able to afford it.
We are constantly applying for more grants that will help to combat the already overwhelming and growing need for support for our children and young people.
Read more about The National Lottery Community Fund here
