Pet Partners Sustainability Statement

Project Sustainability Statement

Pet Partners is dedicated to sustaining research beyond the timeframe of the grant. The “Pup & Cup” research project will serve as a starting point for many future projects to come. Mental health includes far more than the variables investigated in this project - depression, anxiety, and stress. Pet Partners seeks to expand research to develop a much more comprehensive basis of knowledge. This project will provide the cornerstone research design that will be implemented in many new projects in the future. Some of the plans that the organization has in place to continue research in this field follow:

•         ●  After the “Pup & Cup” research project is complete, Pet Partners plans to continue to serve the seven children that participate in the project. The organization does not currently serve St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, but would like to expand to that location. Pet Partners believes that it is unacceptable to stop taking the dogs to visit the children just because the project is over. The dogs and children will have formed a meaningful bond over the course of a year and Pet Partners wants to ensure that the bond lasts as long as possible. By expanding the organization to St Jude, they would be helping not only the seven children that participate in the project, but hundreds of other children in long term care as well. The US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration’s Tips for Program Sustainability document states that one important aspect of sustainability is specifying who the organization wants to serve (2009). The “Pup & Cup” research project is about improving the mental health of childhood cancer patients and these patients are exactly who Pet Partners wants to serve.
  
•         ●  Based on the success of this project, Pet Partners would like to further the research in this field. It wants to follow a similar project design, but investigate even more variables than simply depression scores, stress scores, and heart rate. Other variables that are indicative of mental health could include bipolar disorder scores, brain activity, self-assessments, ADHD and ADD scores, and more. The funding for this new research will come from a few different sources. In the article titled Strategies for Sustainability of Grant-fundedPrograms.FamiliesandCommunities,K atherineRiggsstatesthatfunding strategies can include providing services for a fee, creating an annual fund campaign, and donations (2012). Pet Partners has a goal of eliminating all charges to families. A plan is in place for a fundraising campaign and also a means to accept donations to cover the cost of further research . Currently, Pet Partners uses all the donations that it receives to run the organization. After the completion of the project in September 2021, Pet Partners will begin to put 15% of their donations toward its new research project. It will also start
  

an annual campaign in Minnesota that showcases the findings of “Pup & Cup” to collect even more funds. Pet Partners seeks to use the funding for the “Pup & Cup” as a starting point to help get the research project off the ground. After that, Pet Partners will take action to gather funds on their own to continue research in the field.

● To keep the research, mentioned above, going for years to come, Pet Partners wants to increase its overall donations so that the 15% grows larger every year. Jan Carroll, Robin Leist, and Mary Goss, authors of the article Comprehensive Model for Sustaining Community Projects, s tate that one useful strategy is marketing (2003). They write that it is important to seek recognition by funders and donors by creating a consistent image. This can be done by using the expertise of a marketing professional and expanding public relations by partnering with larger corporations. As mentioned in the Agency Capability Statement, Pet Partners does have affiliations with several large corporations, but there is always room to expand. Reaching out to even larger, well-known companies gives Pet Partners even more exposure and can drive up donations significantly. As soon as the data collection starts for the “Pup & Cup” project, Pet Partners will assign the program directors the task of reaching out to more corporations to expand visibility within the community. These corporations will be invited to attend a few of the project meetings so they can get a clear vision of what Pet Partners is striving to accomplish. Pet Partners is very passionate about continuing research after the completion of this project and is dedicated to finding the funds to do so.