Our Services
Paws for Progress provide a unique offering which improves people’s wellbeing through engaging with dogs; boosting mental health, building resilience, developing valuable skills, and preparing them for a better future. We provide a range of adaptable services in order to meet each person’s unique individual needs.
“You have taught me how much a dog can change your life. You have changed mine.”
Our work focuses on vulnerable young people in Scotland between the ages of 13–25 who are struggling the most. Our programmes are tailored to address the needs of those who are facing a range of challenges, including but not limited to; mental health, neurodivergence, poverty, trauma, and communication difficulties. They are experiencing an absence of other meaningful opportunities that are accessible to them. Many of the young people we target need additional support as they navigate changes and difficult transitional periods in their lives.
We recognise the incredible capacity of Human-Animal Interactions for helping young people. By engaging our learners in interactive activities with dogs, we create an inclusive, empowering environment that promotes skill-building, emotional resilience, and self-belief, resulting in truly transformational change.
We provide a positive focus and opportunities to help others, whilst building trusting relationships and self-worth. This enables us to nurture, harness, and build upon the strengths and skills of these young people who sadly often feel negatively about themselves and their future.
“Thank you for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself.” Paws Student.
The programmes benefit and enhance the lives of the dogs taking part too, in addition to providing our learners with an education in animal care which has a positive ripple effect on dogs and animals in their community.
How We Can Help
Building upon our collaboration with the University of Stirling, Paws for Progress continues to take an evidence-based approach to our work.
Our evidence-based approach provides an essential insight into the impact these services have on our students. Our PhD Research provides in depth and robust evidence of how effective our work is at reaching, engaging, and achieving positive outcomes for even young people who are struggling the most and have felt excluded and consistently failed by mainstream services. For more details please see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28829389/ We continue to review and build on existing evidence to help us understand how mutually beneficial relationships between people and dogs can help improve lives.
We consistently see 99% of the people who attend improving in mood during the session, with feedback from partner staff and our students indicating that this improved mood endures beyond the sessions and significantly contributes to improved wellbeing. More than 95% of our students make progress towards their development goals. We triangulate feedback, observations and measure to gain a clear picture of the outcomes and benefits that our students experience.
The many benefits that our students experience include:
- Improved mood and overall well-being
- Decreased stress and reduced isolation
- Enhanced empathy and kindness towards others
- Development of positive relationships
- Setting and achieving personal goals
- Enjoyment of learning and acquisition of new skills
- Feeling supported through a flexible service model
- Increased sense of accomplishment and achievement
- Boost in self-confidence and self-esteem
- Gaining qualifications and engaging with education
- Positive outlook towards the future with aspirations for success
