Connecticut Humane Society: Build-A-Bear Youth Humane Education Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
A $3,045 grant from the Petfinder Foundation is being used to sponsor humane-education programs for up to 40 classrooms (approximately 800 students).
CHS is submitting this report in accordance with the guidelines that were distributed at the time of the grant award. We will continue to keep the foundation apprised of its progress as the school year progresses.
How many pets did this grant help?
By cultivating in children an empathy and understanding of proper and humane treatment of animals, this grant has the potential to help a countless number of animals, particularly for children and pets in underserved areas.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
This grant will enable CHS to carry out up to 40 humane-education programs with children in grades K-5. Developed and piloted in early 2017, CHS will use two curricula: 1) The Safety PAWtrol: Interacting Safely with Dogs, and 2) Pets and Caring Kids (PaCK). The grant was envisioned to cover the Sept. 2017–June 2018 school year. Early fall is not typically a time when schools look to schedule CHS for programs, as kids are just settling back into classroom routines. Program scheduling is just beginning to get underway. To date, CHS has already booked humane-education programs in the underserved districts of Hartford (November 2017) and New Britain (Spring 2018). CHS is also reaching out to other high-need districts in hopes of setting up programming, including Meriden and Manchester.
Concurrently, CHS’ outreach manager has trained its first cohort of volunteers to lead classroom programs. To date, 12 volunteers have been trained in the curricula and in classroom management techniques. Each of CHS’ shelters — Newington, Waterford and Westport — will have trained humane-education volunteers, which will allow the program to meet demand as it becomes further established and known in the state.
