Business
Jodie Larsen and Grace Beards spoke about their work with Paws and Pause, a social enterprise doggy daycare center providing opportunities for the unemployed recovering from mental health and addiction. The pair first started working together when running a project for St. Mungo’s, a homelessness organization in London. This is where they first began incorporating dogs in their work, which would lead to launching Paws and Pause in 2019. At St. Mungo’s, Jodies and Grace were able to learn about the stages of transitioning to a more sustained life of people experiencing homelessness. People in the programs expressed a need to return to activities that allow people to have fun and rebuild soft skills. Activities could be a day trip to a theme park or walking park; people only need space to regain confidence in daily life. With this same principle, Paws and Pause allows participants to relearn what it feels like to interact with others and have fun. Grace described it as a “slight sense of normality, a slight escapism from maybe the kind of overwhelming challenges that they might be facing at that time.” Recovering depends on each person’s individual journey for what they need to be supported, and avoid entering a cycle of coming reentering the program. Some participants may need to be placed in a job soon after joining, so they can have a sense of purpose or fulfillment. Another group of participants may need to wait longer, so they feel more equipped to restart employment. If people are not supported to a point where they are willing to take a leap, they will go in unprepared and perhaps relapse into what they are trying to grow away from. Jodie and Grace explained the relationship Paws and Pause built with the customers. Overall, the customers view the initiative positively, since the initiative supports social impact while providing a quality service. It also doesn’t hurt that the dogs receive more cuddles and playtime. Paws and Pause did focus on promoting the service more than the social element in the early stages. The initiative was mindful about the stigma around “addiction” and “mental illness” that could cause customers to be wary of sending their dogs to this doggy daycare. Mindfulness and learning along the way is part of the journey for Jodie and Grace starting Paws and Pause as their first business experience. In their first experience, the major lessons the pit learned include interacting with people. They break down one misconception many social entrepreneurs have around sharing ideas. Then, they touch on what will help social entrepreneurs when considering how to delegate tasks. A huge lesson came from organically speaking with people in similar organizations, where the support would increase based on networking within the community. Moving forward, Paws and Pause pains to diversify the pet industry and open other locations. Through their work, Paws and Pause is continuing to help people explore what they want to do. If you’d like to learn more you can check them out on their website, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Read Full Transcript Adam: [00:00:00] Welcome to People Helping People, the podcast to inspire greater social change and give you ideas on how to take action. I'm your host, Adam Morris. And I'm super excited to have Jody and grace from Paws and Pause on our podcast as a guest today. Not only because I love dogs, but my own volunteering with the Samaritans in London gave me insight into how much our mental health can impact our ability to thrive. Jodie and Grace started Paws and Pause in 2019 as a social enterprise doggy daycare center, providing opportunities for the unemployed recovering from mental health and addiction. So let's dive in and explore what this means. Grace and Jodie, welcome on the podcast. Jodie: [00:00:40] Hi, thanks for having us. Adam: [00:00:42] Can we start off, can you just tell us a little bit about what Paws and Pause is?