LITTLE DOG LAUGHED ANIMAL-ASSISTED THERAPY

Goal 1: To create the infrastructure and resources to support expansion of services in the Portland Metro and surrounding areas.

Goal 2: To create and nurture healthy relationships with client organizations in our community

Goal 3: Continue to capture all forms, procedures, expenses, guidelines – EVERYTHING needed to intelligently guide others to replicate our program elsewhere, and to provide convincing evidence that our new therapy model actually works.

A more detailed account is available at https://www.thelittledoglaughed.org/2020/02/15/ongoing-goals/

Goal 1: To create the infrastructure and resources to support expansion of services in the Portland Metro and surrounding areas. We identified the following steps to achieve this goal:

NEW AND HIGH PRIORITY (thanks to COVID-19) : Identify ways to conduct visits online. Since our normal approach is very hands-on, we will have to expand our repertoire of activities that allow us to connect emotionally and mentally with a child through the internet.

a. Recruit, train and support more volunteer dog/handler teams so that we can meet existing demand in the Portland Metro area as well as expand into surrounding areas. Steps toward this goal to include but are not limited to:
-- Streamline and enhance the training/evaluation process so that four teams can be certified in six months or less.
-- Provide a strong support system for approved S.T.A.R. team handlers.

b. Create a sustainable financial plan. Steps toward this goal to include but are not limited to:
-- Finalize a “Grant Application Kit" of up-to-date information for use by all members of the organization.
-- Formalize Organizational Policies

Goal 2: To create and nurture healthy relationships with client organizations
We identified the following steps to achieve this goal:
a. Define realistic screening criteria to be used in evaluating and prioritizing various types of potential client relationships.

b. Do not take on new clients until we have:
-- Applied the previously defined screening criteria AND
-- Verified that we have appropriately trained teams to support them.

c. Examine each client's method of connecting with at-risk youths, and where suitable create intervention models that support those methods.

d. Provide clients and potential clients information that clarifies and validates our program.
-- Create a professionally filmed/edited videotape illustrating our process and linking what they see to their own priorities. DONE
-- Create a brochure which succinctly describes in terminology appropriate for therapy professionals what our program does and does not do. DONE

Goal 3: Continue to capture all forms, procedures, expenses, guidelines – EVERYTHING needed to intelligently guide others to replicate our program elsewhere, and to provide convincing evidence that our new therapy model actually works.

a. Create a list of interested organizations, building on contacts made at ClickerExpo and elsewhere
b. Create a full‐featured workshop which can be offered to other organizations on how we work, etc.

Attrition has been severe during 2022. At the boots-on-the-ground level, we currently have 3 active handlers and 3 therapy dogs. We hope to add at least 4 (hopefully 6) more teams during 2023 by creating two separate training cohorts, one in June and one in October. Due to the pandemic we have learned to use live, online training sessions whenever possible.

Our Board and Advisory Board are drawn from a wide range of relevant specialties, and are well-suited to designing and running the organization. Our relationship with local government and NGOs working with domestic violence, homeless populations, and anti-gang education improves annually -- we have become a trusted resource.

From our original 3 clients, we have now worked with the following -- THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET REOPENED TO VOLUNTEERS ARE NOTED:
- Raphael House (domestic violence shelter)
- NOT REOPENED Monika's House (domestic violence shelter)
- Clackamas Women's Services (both the domestic violence shelter and their Family Justice Center)
- NOT REOPENED Good Neighbor Center (family shelter) - summer camp
- NOT REOPENED McKay Elementary School
- Bonny Slope Elementary School
- Trillium Family Services/Parry Center (residential treatment facility)
- NOT REOPENED Morrison Family Services (two immigrant children foster care facilities)
- HomePlate Youth Services (support for youth experiencing housing instability)
- NOT REOPENED Portland DBT Institute (mental health)

A client-satisfaction survey conducted by a doctoral candidate at Pacific University was uniformly positive, with one caveat -- they wanted MORE team visits. The survey results are available on request.