My Nonprofit Reviews

I volunteer through Denver Pet Partners at Julia Greeley Academy, doing Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) with the R.E.A.D. program (Reading Education Assistance Dogs). This is the second year we have been volunteering there. Julia Greeley is small private school in northeast Denver which serves inner city minority youth. The principal and the teachers select students who are significantly behind their peers in reading. Hathaway, our therapy dog, and I work with the same students each week, a half hour per student. They get the chance to practice reading in a safe, calm environment – to a really non-judgemental listener! I try to channel my comments through Hathaway, saying things like “Hathaway didn’t understand that word, let’s try to break it into parts so that she can understand it,” or “Hathaway is confused about this part of the story. Can you explain it to her?”

The program works best for students who need additional practice; students who have become anxious and uncomfortable reading aloud. Hathaway snuggles beside them as they read, and they pet her while they read to her. Of the students in the first year, one was two grades behind his peers when we started, and had caught up to them by the end of the year.

Part of the success of the Pet Partners program at Julia Greeley can be seen in program’s reception – the staff, parents and students all hope for additional teams, because they can see the difference the Pet Partners teams make in the lives of the students they work with.