Monday, September 12, 2011

Introducing Growing Kinder



So - what is DogLogic doing these days? Well, I've been forming a nonprofit to provide humane education! A website is being build at www.growingkinder.org. Please visit there and let me know what suggestions, comments, concerns you might have. All input is most welcome both on what I am creating and what the website is saying.


I have received solid and enthusiastic community support. There will be a huge amount of work between finding and nurturing connections, learning new skills, presenting and administering programs, and grant writing. I do have a worthy goal though!

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Jen Walker founded Growing Kinder in 2011, based professional experience in animal welfare and humane education. She has previously run most of the programs offered by Growing Kinder while employed at animal shelters in Washington and Oregon, and was the Shelter Manager for Pets Lifeline, an open-admission shelter in Sonoma, California. She has also taught summer-camp, and after-school programs in general science, environmental studies and animal welfare, has been an environmental docent for Mid-Peninsula Open Space District, and interned at a wildlife rehabilitation center. The thread that weaves through these activities is responsible stewardship for all, for animals (both domestic and wild), and for the world around us.

Jen has pet partners who assist her with many of humane education programs. Moon, a rescue dog from Halfway, Oregon who spent the first year of her life as an outside dog on a chain, teaches children empathy and dog safety. Guido, a shelter cat from Salem, Oregon, specializes in feline-human communications and cat safety. Pi, (a young, previously abandoned young tortoiseshell cat – Guido’s apprentice), is the latest addition, teaching a different variety of feline affection and enthusiasm.

Growing Kinder is a non-profit organization (501(3)(c) approval pending) dedicated to providing humane education throughout our community. It offers a variety of programs, beginning with preschool, through high school (service learning, programs for at-risk youth and Boy Scout merit badge counseling) to adult education (pet first aid, new parents with dogs, and disaster preparedness).

Growing Kinder is built upon partnerships with other local and national organizations, most especially with the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter, which provides logistical support for many of these programs. Other current partners include Head Start, Boys & Girls Club, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Dogs&Storks™, Delta Society, Kids Scoop, and the Boy Scouts of America.

Program details:

Pet Start
Pet Start serves the youngest students in our community, prekindergarten (in Head Start classrooms and private preschools). It is an introduction to responsible behavior and safety around pets, involving three sessions: Case of Care, Tail Talk, and Meeting a Dog. The latter two include a feline and a canine animal ambassador, respectively.

Kids Speak for Pets
Kids Speak for Pets teaches basic reporting skills (interviewing, editing, and audience awareness), empathy for others, and the importance of community involvement. Middle School students take part in this program. Participants are introduced to an ambassador animal and learn its story, including asking open-ended questions about it as though interviewing a person. They then meet animals in a shelter setting and write up “interviews,” which they then transform into coherent biographies for publication online or in print for the general public. The program emphasizes both literacy and community involvement.

Service Learning Together
Multi-session program (generally, 3 to 8 sessions) educating participants in what animal shelters do and how they care for animals. Includes both classroom and hands-on components, often (in SL) with a presentation by the student at the conclusion. Students are generally aged 13 to 18

Boy Scouts merit badge counseling
Boy Scouts of America offers merit badges in dozens of subjects, and scouts must earn badges to advance in scouting. The badges typically require a variety of specific tasks, accomplishments, and demonstrations of knowledge satisfactory to Merit Badge Counselors, who must receive prior approval as relevant experts from each Boy Scout Council. Growing Kinder is capable of providing counseling regarding the following badges: Pet Care, Dogs, and Veterinary Medicine.

Healing Species™ (2012)
An 11-session program with weekly sessions focused on empathy, leadership and alternatives to violence. Uses a multimedia approach (videos, books, role-playing and group discussion) to examine positive choices and personal responsibility, with companion and wild animals serving as the jumping-off point for discussions regarding moral questions. A rescued pet animal serves as a recurring focal point and member of the staff.

Safe & Sound (late 2011)
A single-session workshop, typically two hours, derived largely from materials created by the Humane Society of the United States and American Red Cross and aimed at training pet owners in disaster preparedness and basic pet first aid.

Dogs & Storks (late 2011)
Education for expectant families that own dogs, on how to prepare their household for the arrival of an infant. Program focuses on safety techniques, dispelling myths, and evaluating individual situations. May also include private sessions regarding dog behavioral analysis and training.
Delta Society training and evaluation (2012)

The Pet Partners program trains volunteers and screens volunteers and their pets for visiting animal programs in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools and other facilities. Growing Kinder intends to offer both training and evaluation of potential teams, and may also coordinate team visits with partner organizations. Although Delta Society is currently revising the program, training without a companion animal present has typically taken eight hours in 1 or 2 sessions, and with a companion animal, 4 to 6 weeks of two- to three-hour sessions. Evaluation involves a written test and a half-hour hands-on assessment; multiple candidate teams are usually evaluated in a single day.

Growing Kinder operates primarily in Santa Cruz County, from Watsonville - through the city of Santa Cruz - north to Scotts Valley and out to the mountain communities of Felton, Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek, as well as the Santa Clara County area of the Santa Cruz mountains. Many programs have sessions held at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter as well as at the partner organization’s facilities.

If you are interested in learning more about Growing Kinder’s programs, and to schedule presentations including shelter tours, please contact us at info@growingkinder.org. We welcome questions and comments.

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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Walking the Dogs

I've been volunteering dog walking at our local shelter. It is a return. Driving down off the Hill, from the early sun, down into the coastal fog. I did the first shift for the first time this morning, arriving at seven. The shelter was mostly dark, very few folks around, I was the only dog walker on.

I signed in, got my necessaries (keys, poop-bags, treats, "out for a walk" sign, and pen to record information on kennel cards) and went out to the dogs. There is always the cacophony of barking when someone opens that door. I walk calmly, soft-bodied, down the aisle and open the first kennel lock. Vinnie, Poppy, Philip, Domino, Manny, and others and others, from the bouncy to the shaking timid, take a ten minute break with me. There will be a crowd of dog walkers in at nine to give them more but for now they are out and about, relieving themselves, and smelling the day - just a bit, with me.

Afterward I was thinking of the odd change from being the Shelter Manager to being a new recruit volunteer, walking dogs and helping at the Front Desk. It brought to mind the intricacy of all the different folks, doing their different jobs, making the shelter function. Also how essential it is for people in vastly different roles, who may or may not interact with each other in their individual functions, to respect each other and the work that they are all doing.

Simple gestures go a surprisingly long way to making the atmosphere a pleasant one: greetings, eye-contact, thanking everyone for their time. It is a culture of kindness and support that is built internally, that radiates outward into the community.