An annual initiative of Ashbury Estate\u2019s developer, Dennis Family Corporation, 2022 marks the fifth year the Ashbury Community Fund has been up and running. This year, 22 happy community and not-for-profit groups from Armstrong Creek and surrounding areas received grants totalling $32,000, including Story Dogs Geelong.
\nBased on the successful American literacy program, Reading Education Assistance Dogs, Story Dogs is built around the idea of children reading to dogs, and is designed to make it fun for children. The organisation\u2019s success is due in no small part to some 600 dedicated volunteer Dog Teams like Story Dogs Geelong, who visit schools each week as part of the program.
\nWe recently caught up with Karen Knuckey from Story Dog\u2019s Geelong Dog Team to find out a little more about the organisation and how Story Dogs Geelong plans to utilise the grant.\u00a0
\nTell us about Story Dogs?
\n\u201cFounded in the Tweed Heads area in 2009, the Story Dogs program is now available in almost 400 schools across NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS, WA, SA and ACT, helping and encouraging over 3,000 students each week to become confident, lifelong readers. The reading sessions are designed to help children who are below reading level or struggling to stay at level. First and foremost it enables children to develop confidence and improves their focus as the sessions are conducted one-on-one in a quiet place away from the classroom. Typically the majority of students participating in the program are from Year 2.\u201d
\nTells us a little bit about you and how you became involved with Story Dogs Geelong?\u00a0
\n\u201cI joined Story Dogs in back 2019. I\u2019d been looking around for a therapy-type role for my dog as she was showing all the signs that she would be excellent for this kind of work. It must be so hard for kids who struggle to read; it\u2019s such a fundamental part of how we live our lives. So, as an avid reader myself, when I found out about Story Dogs, I just knew this would be a perfect fit for us.
\n\u201cIt was such a success that when my younger dog was ready, she joined the program as well, and I alternate taking each of them into schools for weekly reading sessions. These typically involve 20-minute one-on-one catch ups with selected students who read to whichever dog I have with me somewhere quiet away from the classroom. My role is to help out if needed, but not to teach because the objective is primarily to get children to enjoy reading without expectations or pressure to perform or get it right. The dogs provide a calm, non-judgemental audience, allowing kids to feel more comfortable doing something which perhaps they don\u2019t particularly enjoy.\u201d
\nWhat are the most rewarding things about being involved with\u00a0Story Dogs?\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u201cI really love seeing the bonds that develop between students and the dogs. Kids really look forward to their sessions and the dogs love it too. It\u2019s just so wonderful to spend a year with these children and see just how much their reading improves over the passage of twelve months.\u201d
\nWhat are the biggest challenges facing the organisation?
\n\u201cAs a non-profit organisation, funding is always a challenge. However, we\u2019re so lucky and grateful to receive support from some wonderful people and organisations within the community like Dennis Family Corporation. Sometimes we have a waiting list of schools who want to join the program, but we simply don’t have enough volunteers to meet demand. Fortunately, most schools are patient \u2013 it\u2019s worth the wait.\u201d
\n\u00a0
\nHow are you planning to use the Ashbury Community Fund grant?
\n\u201cThe Ashbury grant will enable us to provide more books for our Geelong region program. We endeavour to provide books that are current, that we know children will be interested in reading, rather than traditional \u2018readers\u2019 and curriculum-based books. At the end of the day, we just want reading to be fun. So, it\u2019s important that kids have a selection of books that appeal to them.\u201d
\nIf you were granted one wish Story Dogs, what would it be?
\n\u201cEasy! That every Primary School has access to the Story Dogs program!\u201d
\nHow can people become involved, support the organisation, access services, donate, volunteer etc?
\n\u201cThere are so many ways that people can become involved with Story Dogs Geelong. If you think your dog might be suitable to participate in the program, we welcome all types of dogs, except for restricted dog breeds. But obviously your dog\u2019s temperament, obedience and willingness are also key here. Dogs also need to pass an accreditation test carried out by our certified Dog Team Assessors and need to have annual vet checks, vaccinations, council registration, and be clean and groomed before going into schools.\u201d
\n\u201cWe\u2019re also always on the lookout for individuals who are keen to be organisers, doers and go getters. Or you could make a donation. It costs approximately $500 per year to put a Dog Team into each primary school. So, we\u2019re always incredibly grateful for any financial contributions, no matter the size. Just visit our website storydogs.org.au for more details and information.\u201d
\nFor more details about the Ashbury Community Fund, visit the Ashbury website at www.ashburyestatel.com.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An annual initiative of Ashbury Estate\u2019s developer, Dennis Family Corporation, 2022 marks the fifth year the Ashbury Community Fund has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events-local-area"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dev.build.optimodesign.com.au\/ashbury2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}