Safe Humane Chicago and Best Friends make a difference

This is a great story- Safe Humane Chicago (SHC) teamed up with Best Friends to make a different in the community. I think there is a lesson here to be learned...it is a bit long, but I wanted to share with our dog-loving readers. :)
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Last fall, 20 Walter Payton College Prep High School students in Chicago signed on for the Youth Leaders for Safe Humane Chicago seminar, where they are learning about animals, learning to become teachers and hoping to help lead a movement to replace violence with kindness.
Best Friends is offering its support. Last week, we stepped up to become the sole national sponsor of Safe Humane Chicago (SHC), which is designed to end dog fighting and violence toward animals and people.

SHC is an unprecedented community-wide alliance of government organizations, schools, faith-based groups, law enforcement members, and animal rescues and shelters dedicated to combating violence by promoting compassion and caring for people and animals. It will be introduced in Chicago neighborhoods where violence is most prevalent and resources most scarce.

“With the Best Friends alliance, Safe Humane Chicago will greatly expand its programming of education and caregiving to reach all population segments – kids, teens, and adults, especially in at-risk communities,” says Cynthia Bathurst, SHC’s principal director.

The Youth Leaders program is an elective at the school and the first SHC youth seminar offered in the city. It teaches teens kinder pet ownership practices, humane treatment of animals, the dangers and unlawfulness of dog fighting, and ways to avoid dog bites and potentially aggressive dogs.

The seminar also prepares the high school students to introduce another SHC program – Kids, Animals and Kindness – to grammar school students.
“We all work so hard during the week; that’s why we always look forward to seminar day,” says Andie, a Youth Leaders participant. “I didn’t know what I was in for when I signed up for this, but I’m glad I did. We have been practicing and learning about stopping violence. In the bigger picture, if we stop violence against animals, we won’t have violence against humans.”

Early on, the students learned their seminar had become an official program under Safe Humane Chicago. An official curriculum needed to go along with it. Seminar teacher Michelle Mowery asked the students if they’d be willing to take on the responsibility as co-creators of the training materials that will be used by the participants in future Youth Leaders programs.

“Encouraging students to invest themselves in this project is an important aspect of Payton’s mission to nurture tomorrow’s leaders,” Michelle says. “As a teacher, I have the unique opportunity to share my love of animals with my high school students and also to foster kindness and to demonstrate respect to their younger peers across the Chicago public schools.”
Each week, Cynthia Bathurst meets with the students for a session that’s part brainstorming and part training.

For the training component, she often brings in experts in the field to give presentations. Susan Robinson, from SHC’s Humane Education Oversight Committee and community outreach manager for PAWS Chicago, gave a slideshow explaining ways to read a dog’s body language, the importance of spay/neuter, and the link between violence against animals and violence against people.

The students were also treated to a visit from Best Friends dog trainer John Garcia. “These kids really get it,” John said. “It’s inspiring to see young people so enthusiastic and well-informed. They’ll make great animal ambassadors.”
During brainstorming sessions, the students decide what to include for future seminars and also develop source materials for their own teaching endeavors.

The class breaks into small groups to work on creating coloring books, workbooks, individual lesson plans and educational games. They also design promotional materials like T-shirts, nametags, bracelets, pins and logos. Cynthia circulates from group to group gathering their ideas.
In a few weeks, the class will have their first chance to see how they do as teachers when they take their presentation to students at Manierre Elementary School. There, with help from dogs Boomer and Max, the seminar participants will lead their first class on proper petting etiquette and offer a few pointers on compassion and kindness toward animals.

“It’s clear – and very exciting – that these young people will be role models for younger children, as they are forming life habits,” Cynthia says. “There’s no doubt they are part of a revolution that will change the way people relate to animals, nature and each other.”
On May 8, the Youth Leaders students will graduate and become the first official Safe Humane Chicago presenters.

On another SHC front, Best Friends plans to establish a community animal hospital that would offer low-cost veterinary care and spay/neuter procedures as well as education and recreation programs to further the agendas of compassion and kindness toward animals and people. It would also serve as the hub for all Safe Humane Chicago programs and initiatives.
“No one is building animal hospitals in at-risk communities,” said Best Friends chief executive Paul Berry. “This has never been done before. And it’s time. We want to offer these important services and community programs to those who need them the most.”

Best Friends intends to adopt the Safe Humane Chicago model for other cities.
You can read more about SHC in the Chicago community on the Best Friends Network or listen to this podcast of a radio interview with Paul Berry.

link to article:
http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cfm?page=news&mode=entry&entry=35CB2EF5-19B9-B9D5-9DBE8E9F036895DA