10 South Fairgrounds Rd. Price, Utah 84501

Voice/TTY: (435) 637-4950

PEOPLE &ANIMALS

WORKING TO

SERVE

WHAT IS THE ACTIVE RE-ENTRY

INDEPENDENT LIVING PROGRAM?

Active Re-Entry Center for IndependentLiving Program (ARECIL) is a communitybased program which assists individuals withdisabilities to achieve or maintain self-sufficient and productive lives in their owncommunities. Our program is committed topromoting the rights, dignity and quality oflife for all persons with disabilities.

HELP US MAKE A PAWS-ITIVE

DIFFERENCE!

Demand for the services of well trained PAWShandler teams is growing daily and we arealways seeking potential new volunteer teams— as well as financial support — to increaseour ability to provide our services.

The Active Re-Entry, P.A.W.S. Programwelcomes all who want to lend a helpingpaw. You can support our efforts in thefollowing ways:

• Become a PAWS member: $35 membershipfee entitles you to a T-Shirt or Hat and aninvitation to all PAWS activities.

• Volunteering (along with your pet) to be aPet Partner handler.

• Corporate and institutional sponsors and/or supporters are also welcome. We will beglad to send a representative to speak to yourorganization about our work.

ARECIL is a proudUnited Way

Partner Agency.

Active Re-Entry is a registered 501c3non-profit organization. Your contributions are tax deductible.

P.A.W.S.ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY

“We are all travelers in thewilderness of this world, and thebest we can find in our travels isan honest friend.”— Robert Louis Stevenson

A PROGRAM OF

ACTIVE RE-ENTRY CENTER

FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING

www.arecil.org/PAWS.html

www.arecil.org

The bond between animals and their humans

is strong. Animals love unconditionally and see

everyone with love -- no matter what their

physical, mental or emotional abilities are.

Animals don’t judge. It is this love and bond

that Animal Assisted Therapy and Animal

Assisted Activity programs harness for the

benefit and support of our consumers.

WHAT IS A THERAPY ANIMAL?

A therapy animal possesses the necessaryskills and aptitude to facilitate therapy underthe direction of a health care or humanservices professional. Therapy animals areowned by volunteers, not by the people ororganizations that they serve. Pets must becurrent on vaccinations, well-groomed andwell socialized with other animals and people.Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses andllamas are some of the species that have beencertified as therapy animals.

Animals involved in the program must benon-wild and display reliable, dependableand predictable behavior. Because handlerteams volunteer in various settings (schools,

BRINGING COMFORT AND HEALING TO THOSE IN NEED:

Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is the use of animals to facilitate positive changes ina broad spectrum of of therapeutic settings. AAT is becoming a more accepted,appreciated and valued standard of promoting physical, emotional, cognitive andsocial improvement for people with special needs.

In Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) programs, volunteer teams become formallyinvolved in patient treatment regimens, helping to motivate the achievement of a widevariety of goals and objectives. As those who share their lives with animals will attest,there are benefits that animals can provide that often times people cannot. Researchis now corroborating this conventional wisdom. Miraculous improvements haveoccurred during animal-assisted therapy visits.

The Active Re-Entry P.A.W.S. Program participates in both AAT and Animal-AssistedActivity (AAA) programs, in which volunteers visit informally with hospital patients,nursing home residents and people in other facilities.

WWW.ARECIL.ORG/PAWS.HTML

libraries, hospitals, long term care facilities andothers) the animals must be comfortable indifferent situations and especially being pettedand ‘loved’ by strangers. Volunteering in thesecommunity settings requires differenttemperaments than what your animal maydisplay in their home environment. There aremany great family pets who are notcomfortable being petted by strangers or beingasked to ‘perform’ in diverse settings.

The handler team must be able to pass anaptitude and skills test developed by thenational Delta Society and each team is re-evaluated every two years. The team evaluationprocess shows how well the handler interpretsand manages the animal’s behavior and howthe animal responds to the handler. Theevaluation will include situations or activitieswhich may be encountered during visits, suchas: sit, come, down, stay, walk nicely on a leash,leave items alone when told, be around otherdogs, calmly react to various noises, becomfortable around wheelchairs/walkers,enjoy being petted by strangers and in crowdedsituations and ultimately how well you worktogether as a team.