Partners and Paws Summer 2020

Saint Francis and COVID

At Saint Francis Service Dogs, our goal is to protect the health and safety of our partners, dogs, volunteers, staff, and community; to do so with thoughtfulness and compassion; and to ensure every measure we take serves the common good.

How are we doing? It’s impossible to count how many times our Saint Francis friends and families have asked that question in the past few months. Knowing that we have such a strong village of support makes navigating these interesting times so much easier. Our mindset from the onset of the COVID-19 crisis has been to keep totally focused on our mission goals: to continue raising and training our Saint Francis puppies and dogs and to continue supporting our Saint Francis candidates and partners. Luckily, we are blessed with operations, philanthropy, and administrative staff members who are imaginative, flexible, and unfailingly good

humored. Just like the millions of teachers who had to become experts in distance learning overnight, our trainers examined their lesson plans, training protocols, and socialization strategies and distilled them to their cores. Conference calls, cloud file sharing, and abundant Zoommeetings took the place of traditional face-to-face class sessions, interviews, and outings. What began as a short-term bridge to “back to normal” has actually turned into an imaginative and rich interactive model that has strengthened our educational program and diversified our operational reach.

We continue to follow the recommendations set forth by the CDC, WHO, the Virginia Department of Health, and our veterinary advisors, in our office and training spaces - which means (among other things) an increased cleaning supplies budget and acclimating our puppies and dogs to their humans wearing masks and standing far apart! They are taking all of the changes in stride – of course! Now, make no mistake: we are all SO eagerly looking forward to the day when we can once again comfortably gather and share space in 3D. Saint Francis is a hands-on, convivial family, and being apart isn’t easy. We’re confident, however, that even after we’re embracing our new normal, the lessons that we’ve learned in the past few months (and the ones we are sure to continue to pick up) will make us stronger, smarter, and more resilient as an organization.

So, we’re doing pretty well, thanks! How are YOU doing?

5