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Healing Species, a violence prevention outreach program incorporating the help of rescued dogs, was featured in a recent issue of “Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice,” an interdisciplinary journal serving a diverse audience of academicians and practitioners in fields including criminal justice, education and social work. Shown with a copy of the journal and Lizzie, one of 15 dogs used in the program, is Healing Species founder Cheri Brown Thompson. Standing behind her holding a 9-week-old puppy, Baby Ruth, is Thompson’s son, Joe. (DIONNE GLEATON/T&D) |
Healing Species featured in national journal
By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff WriterFriday, April 18, 2008
Educators and juvenile justice practitioners will be among the professionals reviewing an Orangeburg attorney’s compassion education program as a promising intervention tool in the areas of youth violence and school safety.
Cheri Brown Thompson founded the “Healing Species,” a violence prevention outreach program incorporating the help of rescued dogs, in 1999 after her work as a lawyer opened her eyes to how many convicted violent offenders first abused animals.
The program has since been featured in “Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice,” an interdisciplinary journal which provides practitioners of juvenile justice and related fields with a resource for publishing current empirical research and discussing theoretical issues. The journal serves a diverse audience, including those in the fields of criminal justice, education, psychology, social work and behavior analysis.
Thompson said Julie E. Sprinkle spent a year studying the effectiveness of Healing Species as a doctoral student at the University of South Carolina. Her thesis was titled “Animals, Empathy and Violence: Can Animals Be Used to Convey Principles of Prosocial Behavior to Children?”
Thompson said Sprinkle, who is now a professor at Appalachian State University, submitted her thesis for publication in the journal.
“They selected it. We were just thrilled because part of meeting the federal standards for what are called ‘evidence-based programs’ is to have your evaluation published in what they call a ‘peer review journal.’ We knew this would be an important step in our process of what’s literally called ‘evidence-based status’ (through the U.S. Department of Education),” Thompson said.
Since its inception, Healing Species has relied on rescued dogs to teach children in classrooms how to understand and overcome abuse, neglect and grief while also teaching life skills in self-esteem, conflict resolution, anger management and respect for the feelings of others. The Healing Species reaches between 2,500 and 3,000 students annually in 15 to 20 schools throughout South Carolina alone.
“We have a satellite chapter that’s doing just as well in Seattle, Wash. and two start-up groups in Greenwich, Conn. The lady (who is spearheading the Connecticut start-up groups) is independently wealthy and is now taking the program to Los Angeles in the summer,” Thompson said.
The program includes 11 instructors, 15 dogs and a curriculum of 12 published lessons which are continually expanded and revised, she said.
An alcohol, tobacco and drug lesson and a new speaker, Dave the Messenger, have been recently added as part of the curriculum. Thompson said the speaker served time in the juvenile justice system but now speaks on the subjects of recovery and rehabilitation.
Compassion education and violence intervention are the principles which the Healing Species program will continue to extol, she said.
“That, to us, is character. Character education falls under the umbrella of compassion education because if you teach a child compassion, they will have respect for the feelings of others and a sense of responsibility. If you can make that connection to their heart, then they can reclaim their future this hard, mean world wants to snatch from them,” Thompson said.
Cheri Brown Thompson founded the “Healing Species,” a violence prevention outreach program incorporating the help of rescued dogs, in 1999 after her work as a lawyer opened her eyes to how many convicted violent offenders first abused animals.
The program has since been featured in “Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice,” an interdisciplinary journal which provides practitioners of juvenile justice and related fields with a resource for publishing current empirical research and discussing theoretical issues. The journal serves a diverse audience, including those in the fields of criminal justice, education, psychology, social work and behavior analysis.
Thompson said Julie E. Sprinkle spent a year studying the effectiveness of Healing Species as a doctoral student at the University of South Carolina. Her thesis was titled “Animals, Empathy and Violence: Can Animals Be Used to Convey Principles of Prosocial Behavior to Children?”
Thompson said Sprinkle, who is now a professor at Appalachian State University, submitted her thesis for publication in the journal.
“They selected it. We were just thrilled because part of meeting the federal standards for what are called ‘evidence-based programs’ is to have your evaluation published in what they call a ‘peer review journal.’ We knew this would be an important step in our process of what’s literally called ‘evidence-based status’ (through the U.S. Department of Education),” Thompson said.
Since its inception, Healing Species has relied on rescued dogs to teach children in classrooms how to understand and overcome abuse, neglect and grief while also teaching life skills in self-esteem, conflict resolution, anger management and respect for the feelings of others. The Healing Species reaches between 2,500 and 3,000 students annually in 15 to 20 schools throughout South Carolina alone.
“We have a satellite chapter that’s doing just as well in Seattle, Wash. and two start-up groups in Greenwich, Conn. The lady (who is spearheading the Connecticut start-up groups) is independently wealthy and is now taking the program to Los Angeles in the summer,” Thompson said.
The program includes 11 instructors, 15 dogs and a curriculum of 12 published lessons which are continually expanded and revised, she said.
An alcohol, tobacco and drug lesson and a new speaker, Dave the Messenger, have been recently added as part of the curriculum. Thompson said the speaker served time in the juvenile justice system but now speaks on the subjects of recovery and rehabilitation.
Compassion education and violence intervention are the principles which the Healing Species program will continue to extol, she said.
“That, to us, is character. Character education falls under the umbrella of compassion education because if you teach a child compassion, they will have respect for the feelings of others and a sense of responsibility. If you can make that connection to their heart, then they can reclaim their future this hard, mean world wants to snatch from them,” Thompson said.