Pawsitive Ripples Effect Project

We are a grassroots, startup nonprofit excited to provide services in Clark County, WA!

The mission of Pawsitive Ripples Effect Project is to combine work with youth impacted by trauma, animals, and nature to build life skills for youth and improve stability for all participants.

Pawsitive Ripples Effect Project will serve youth & young adults between the ages of 16 through 25, with a component of the program called Transitions that is intended to provide young adults ages 21 through 25 with more intensive case management as they jump into the world of adulting.  We will serve youth impacted by trauma, as self identified by youth because they are the experts of their own experience.

Two things make Pawsitive Ripples Effect Project unique.  One is our commitment to centering youth voice, ideas, and strengths into program implementation.  This started at the foundation of our program development with our Youth Panel, made up a group of youth who provided insights that guided policies and helped us create processes for eligibility, intake, and an activities and schedule plan for our initial start to services.  Communicating with the youth in our demographic for the Youth Panel was an awesome experience and it was fun to see youth in our community interested and asking for these services to get started.     

The second component that makes our program stand out is our approach to providing healing connections to young people by tapping into the benefits of spending time outdoors and around animals.  Time outdoors can greatly reduce stress, help people feel more grounded, increase & focus, as well as creativity.  Connecting with animals can also decrease stress & anxiety, help people feel safety and support, and increase oxytocin and joy.  These are things that all of us need, but especially for people who have experienced trauma, these benefits can help people step out of survival mode and feel more centered so they can work on the things they aim for.      

A key piece of this program is in building and strengthening healthy relationships: within the Pawsitive Ripples Effect Project community amongst peers and supportive adults, animals, and the natural environment.  These healing relationships inherently provide the compassion, hope, and safety needed for healing.  

Through program activities, P.R.E.P community meetings, and one-on-one case management, we will support youth with the life skills they are working on, and that could range from building social skills, to building coping skills, resume building skills, to getting basic needs met as identified by the youth.  The cool thing is that along the way of building their skillsets, youth will have the opportunity to just have some fun and be surrounded by a community of folks that accept them for who they are, including their strengths and their struggles.

As a new startup nonprofit program, we are focused on building partnerships currently planning some events in the summer with partnering social service programs to get the word out there and support youth in our community as we can.

Initial services will include 2 group days monthly, primarily located at Bridgeview Resource Center,  that will offer drop-in times for youth to get their individual needs met, or come by and meet us, and structured time for facilitated activities.  This will grow to 4 days per month as our capacity grows, and will continue to grow from there.  Facilitated activities will range from group discussions, art activities, short nature walks, working together on our bi-annual projects, challenge initiatives and team building games, or visiting with a volunteer therapy animal.  We will offer outings quarterly so youth have the opportunity to hang out in nature, like a day hike to an awesome waterfall, and/or go spend some time with animals, like playing with kittens at a local rescue.  Twice per year we will complete a project that will benefit the environment and/or animals, providing leadership opportunities, a way to give back and a way for youth participants to see their strengths and positive impact on the world.  

Pawsitive Ripples Effect Project works to center diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in all we do.  We know that youth in WA state who identify as BIPOC & 2SLGBTQ+ are disproportionately impacted by so many traumatic life events, such as homelessness or trafficking, and because of this we strive to stay informed, be safe advocates, and create a space of inclusion and belonging when working with youth & our community.