Support Therapy Dogs for Child Welfare Workers

There is a lot of research about how beneficial therapy dogs are in many settings, from those in hospitals to those experiencing trauma or suffering from anxiety.

I have recently seen firsthand how beneficial dogs are to the helpers, such as first responders.

I took my two boys, Asano and Shade, to work with me after we experienced a tragedy within our office and saw firsthand how much their presence helped everyone.

I am in the process of drafting a proposal to bring therapy dogs into Child Welfare offices throughout the State of Oklahoma. These dogs would be able to be used daily for workers who are stressed on a regular basis and do what I consider to be one of the hardest and most underappreciated jobs in our state. This would also allow therapy dogs to be available to children and families when they are experiencing trauma themselves. The research on how beneficial this is for these two purposes is plentiful and all say the same thing: Therapy dogs make a big difference!!

To help with this proposal, I would like to be able to present pre-trained and certified therapy dogs for this proposed program.

That takes capital. My job is paid by the government, and I don't have a lot of that floating around.

I am asking for help to be able to cover the costs of training for both my boys to get them ready for the therapy dog certification and the certification itself.

I see this as an area that does not get much attention at all and want to provide a much-needed service to those who give so much of themselves to the most vulnerable that they rarely have enough for themselves.

NOTE: This is not currently approved by any government service and at this time is only an idea I have that I would like to present to our leadership. This is my own thoughts (guided by research) and does not represent any current plan or beliefs by any government agency.