2022 SPIRIT OF SERVICE HONOREES

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Animalytix and its partners would like to recognize the 2022 Spirit of Service honoree, Pawsperity

EPEC – Empowering the Parent to Empower the Child | Pawsperity

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Mission

Pawsperity empowers struggling parents to lift their children out of generational poverty through training in the high-pay, in-demand trade of pet grooming, along with comprehensive wraparound services to address their unique needs.

Culture

Pawsperity opened in 2016 to help parents with multiple barriers to employment find meaningful careers. By coupling training in the trade of pet grooming with comprehensive support services, the program has become an unexpected solution to the many problems that plague struggling families. To date, 96 students have graduated from the program, with 100% finding employment upon graduation. Graduates earn an average of $24/hour as professional groomers.

Why Pet Grooming?

100% of Pawsperity’s students live in poverty and arrive with significant barriers to successful employment. Most are young mothers with histories of abuse, incomplete education, and chronic underemployment. Pet grooming is often a wonderful career fit for adults emerging from this kind of background. The human-animal bond fostered through grooming gives students a powerful reason to show up to class, and later work, every day. From practicing emotion regulation to fostering patience and compassion, working with dogs requires students to grow in ways that traditional jobs do not.

Program

Students complete 644 hours of hands-on pet grooming training, along with weekly soft skills lessons covering topics required for successful employment: promptness, task completion, teamwork, etc. Complementing this training is individualized case management that helps each participant set and reach their goals. Life skills lessons offer practical solutions to challenges most students face, including how to build credit, budgeting and personal finance, health & wellness, and more. Parenting is a priority focus area of the life skills curriculum; community partners deliver accessible, hands-on approaches to understanding child development and raising kids with confidence.

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