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Paw Pals Program

MacKillop Family Services

The Paw Pals Animal Assisted Education (AAE) Program supports students who are currently disengaged or at risk of disengaging from education.

  • Vic

Pricing: Paid

Origin: Developed in Australia for Australian schooling contexts

Affiliations: Approved elsewhere: VIC

Product type: Program; Professional learning

Contact details

MacKillop Family Services
ABN: 79 0782 992 88

https://www.mackillop.org.au/programs/paw-pals

pawpals@mackillop.org.au

Focus areas

  • Positive relationships

  • Belonging and inclusion

  • Mental health literacy and life skills

  • Self-regulation and engagement

  • Resilience and optimism

  • Self-esteem and body image

  • Respectful relationships and consent education

Curriculum alignment

Prospective users

Audience: Targeted small group early intervention (Tier 2), Intensive individualised approach (Tier 3)

Context: School or centre-based

Main beneficiaries: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, Year 10, Year 11, Year 12

Delivery style: Delivered by program staff

Aims & approach

The Paw Pals AAE Program focuses on building student engagement and confidence through animal assisted activities and individualised learning sessions working alongside our trained therapy dogs and program facilitators.

The program is available to schools in Victoria and aims to:

  • Increase social confidence and emotional intelligence
  • Improve self-regulation and behavioural management skills
  • Increase student engagement in academic based learning tasks
  • Deliver positive learning experiences and opportunities for student success

Implementation support

  • Access to professional facilitator, instructor or mentor
  • Regular webinars or access to community of professional practice

Evidence

Paw Pals is substantiated by a comprehensive array of systematic reviews, program evaluations, and empirical studies, attesting to its effectiveness in enhancing student wellbeing, engagement, and social-emotional learning within educational settings.

The development of Paw Pals was informed by systematic reviews highlighting the effective implementation of animal-assisted education (AAE) and its positive impact on children's social skills and emotional wellbeing, particularly the effective delivery for young people at risk and in school settings.

The effectiveness of the program is supported by internal evaluations with Monash University that demonstrate statistically significant positive improvements in students' self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, social management and responsible decision making. The evaluation encompassed quantitative and qualitative data from 40 students and their teachers.

Paw Pals continually monitor the latest evidence-base to guide program refinement, alongside conducting consistent program logic evaluations. Ongoing consultation with educational stakeholders and iterative program evaluations ensure that Paw Pals remains responsive to the evolving needs of the educational community. This includes interviews, focus groups, collation of data points and external reviews such as the School Focused Youth Services Impact Report (2023) demonstrating the positive impacts of Paw Pals.