'Dog day care traineeship gave me sense of belonging'

Shancy Collett-Nanton says working with dogs means "you're part of a pack"

Tucked in the corner of a park in Brixton, south London, a dog day care is making a difference.

Paws and Pause, a social enterprise, has helped people recovering from addiction and mental illness back into employment.

It takes on trainees for six months to help them develop their CVs and employability while they work alongside the dogs.

"It's given me a sense of belonging more than anything," says Shancy Collett-Nanton, who has completed the trainee programme.

'Part of a pack'

"When you're working with dogs you're part of a pack," she said.

Ms Collett-Nanton said she was working at a food bank in 2019 when the pandemic hit, and the stress of the job led to her suffering a breakdown.

"It was a lot. It was getting very, very stressful," she said.

"The constant listening to people's struggles every single day, day in, day out. And in the end basically I had a breakdown."

After completing the trainee programme at the dog day care centre, Ms Collett-Nanton went on to work for the social enterprise full-time.

Trainees help look after the dogs at the day care centre to boost their employability

Amy Deeprose, who also completed the programme at Paws and Pause, said her autism diagnosis and caring for her mother before she died had prevented her from being able to commit to a job long-term.

"When you've been out of work for a long time you often feel very separated," she said.

"In society, we tend to take the measure of success as 'oh they're back at work, oh they're doing great'.

"It's very hard then to go from being a service user to just going back to work."

Now she is also employed by the social enterprise and has been a member of the team for the past couple of years.

Grace Beards says the organisation is aiming to "scale up" its trainee programme

Founders Jodie Larsen and Grace Beards started the social enterprise after working for homelessness charity St Mungo's.

There, they say they saw first-hand the "power" that working with animals can have.

'Really long waiting list'

Trainees get to spend six months working with the dogs as part of the scheme

"Working with animals can increase a person's ability to connect, learn and feel confident" said Ms Beards.

"That's why we're looking to scale up our trainee programme."

She said the organisation received referrals from organisations across London, including mental health services and substance use services.

"We have a really long waiting list, which is why we're doing a crowd-funder at the moment," Ms Beards added.