A doggy daycare centre in Peckham is giving jobs to people in recovery from addiction and mental illness.
Paws & Pause has offered 47 trainee placements to date through its community employment programme.
Based in Brixton and Peckham, the organisation is crowdfunding to raise £6,000 so it can keep helping people get back into work after falling on hard times.
Paws & Pause founders, Jodie and Grace, started the business after working at a homeless charity.
They told us: “We started Paws & Pause with a vision to combine community care with dog care, inspired by our time working at St-Mungo’s homelessness charity – where we saw first-hand how the presence of an animal could increase a person’s ability to connect, learn and feel confident.
They explained the benefits of working with the animals to people who have suffered from mental illness and feel ‘socially excluded.’
“Dogs can be a catalyst to engaging people living with mental health difficulties and substance use challenges as part of their recovery journey.
“We believe that the connection between dogs and humans is powerful and can act as a great motivator for engagement, change and self-reflection, enabling access to employment and further education for those too often socially excluded.”
Paws & Pause provides a place for trainees to build on how to build and maintain employability within the daycare setting, alongside the dogs and professional team. The six-month programme combines hands-on experience in the doggy day care supported by 1-1 mentoring, employability and personal development workshops, team activities and the completion of a Workbook to complement each placement.
Those who give to the Crowdfunder will be entered into a raffle to win prizes such as two months’ free dog daycare, online dog training sessions, or organic doggy treat hampers.
Find the Crowdfunder online and give today, at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/paws-and-pause.