It's Fun To Do Good and Pawsitive Friendships knows it!

“Pawsitive Friendships” provide Animal Assisted Therapy for people with special needs

MISSION and DISTINCTION
 
The mission of Pawsitive Friendships is to provide Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) to children with special needs, allowing them to build animal/human friendships while simultaneously working on their various therapy goals. Pawsitive Friendships is affiliated with clinics whose licensed therapists work one on one with each child, providing that child with individualized attention. As an organization, we recognize that while two children may share the same diagnosis, no two children’s goals are the same. Therefore, our services are specifically designed to allow each child to reach his or her desired goals.
 
HOW
 
Pawsitive Friendships currently has thirty-five volunteer registered Pet Therapy (one human/one animal) teams working at three clinics and four special education schools. In conjunction with the clinics’ and schools’ therapists and teachers, we assist more than one hundred and fifty special needs students each year. Aided by the gentle and unconditional love of our highly trained animals, our teams help these students improve physically, socially and emotionally, as well as in the areas of self-regulation and motivation. Our ultimate goal is to improve and strengthen both their skills and their character traits, giving them the added confidence they need in order to achieve their personal goals.
 
WHY and WHERE
 
The national average for children diagnosed with Autism is 1 in 68, while Arizona’s rate is 1 in 64. One in 40 are boys. As for children in general with disabilities, Arizona’s rate is 4.3% compared with the national average of 5%. Arizona ranks second in the country as a state that provides services for children on the Autism Spectrum. And because the families of special needs children have overly large medical bills, Pawsitive Friendships offers our Animal Assisted Therapy to them for FREE.

Give a shout out to Pawsitive Friendships or lend support to their cause HERE.

It's Fun To Do Good and ICAN knows it!

ICAN’s mission is to provide free, comprehensive programs that empower youth to be productive, self-confident, and responsible members of the community.

Making a Difference

ICAN is a free, family-centered youth service in the East Valley providing a full complement of programs proven effective in equipping youth to achieve personal and academic success by tackling substance abuse, gang involvement and juvenile delinquency.

ICAN goes beyond being just an after-school program for at-risk youth. ICAN works with youth on the critical skills they need to be productive and responsible members of the community.

8 out of 10 young people in the areas we serve are living in extreme poverty. Four of those children will go to bed hungry at night and eight will be using drugs or alcohol to cope with the harsh realities they face. Joining gangs becomes a more viable choice than graduation in the community we serve.

This is not an option for ICAN. We exist to combat these issues and build strong futures for them and for our community.

ICAN is a nationally-accredited organization that offers programming proven effective in developing youth. ICAN meets the needs of local youth and families in a very unique way:

·         Research-based to prevent substance abuse, gang involvement and other forms of juvenile delinquency

·         Free to all youth and families

·         Comprehensive, as they incorporate families in the process, spreading skill building into the home

·         Changing the face of the community by altering unhealthy norms that exist toward substance abuse, violence and juvenile delinquency

·         Nationally accredited, meeting over 400 standards of excellence

Give a shout out to iCAN or lend support to their cause HERE.