In 2022, MacKillop launched Paw Pals in Ballarat, offering the animal-assisted education program to local schools to engage or re-engage students who were struggling with school and learning.
Since then, 17 schools have embraced the program, with up to 150 students supported with their social, emotional and learning wellbeing needs.
However, with increasing rates of school refusal, disengagement, disruption during classes and learning challenges triggered by intellectual disabilities, students face a difficult road to completing their education.
Because of this, the Paw Pals program will launch its first school holiday program, enabling it as an accompanying support to the regular Paw Pals education curriculum.
The school holiday program will act to further the benefits of the Paw Pals program, changing to provide a more relaxed and fun approach to learning, and support students to develop self-confidence and the skills to work automously.
MacKillop’s Paw Pals’ Ballarat Facilitator, Kathleen Anderson, is seeing the challenges students in the region face.
“We’re seeing young people struggling to stay engaged in the classroom, increasing diagnoses of ADHD, ADD, anxiety and intellectual disorders, and many still scrambling to catch up on learning lost due to COVID,” she says.
Programs like the school holiday program can go a long way to helping students continue their education.
Since working with students alongside her Paw Pal therapy dog Millie, Kathleen has seen calmer behaviours, more effective interactions with others, increases in self-confidence, and more positive relationships form with teachers and peers.
Supported by MacKillop’s deep knowledge of trauma and its impact on the social and emotional behaviour of young people, the Paw Pals’ program focuses on building student engagement and learner confidence by working alongside trained therapy dogs and program facilitators.
Paw Pals school holiday program will launch later in 2025 and will be run with the support and funding from the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat Foundation as well as from the community.
