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Our Curriculum

Comfort is a human care behavior and teachable skill

The beauty of this skill is that it actually requires a compassionate connection between two individuals. The dangerous trends of anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation, and self-harm are having devastating consequences on our collective mental health. At the current rate, without intervening, isolation and self-absorption will overtake our culture. There has never been a more critical time to teach this essential human care behavior. Through this powerful program created by Inspiring Comfort, students will learn to recognize and act to not only help one another, but also to define themselves as powerful agents of change in our society.

At the conclusion of the program participants will

Articulate the statement of comfort and the human characteristics this skill carries with it

Recognize the characteristics of dogs as teachers and emotional responders to humans in need

Explain The Awkward Zone™ and the 3 ways in which we can respond when we find ourselves stuck in it

Recognize the 20 barriers we experience to comforting others

Identify the 5 steps to comfort, using the circle of comfort for support

Recognize the 10 pitfalls of comforting

Explain the science behind the Circle and the skill of comforting another human in distress or need

Differentiate between the functions of the heart and the functions of the brain when caring for others

Identify the ways to recognize the signals of those in need of comfort

Identify all the verbal and non-verbal ways humans can use their bodies and their senses to initiate a comfort response

Apply the skill, by mapping out a personal plan of readiness in order to comfort

At the conclusion of the program participants will
Create
1

Create

Create compassionate connections with 5 individuals whom they identify as in need of comfort

Blueprint
2

Blueprint

Create a personal comforting blueprint based on their own individual strengths

Action Plan
3

Action Plan

Commit to and implement a comfort resolution and action plan for the next 90 days

Want to work together?
What we do

Teach and provide comfort through an evidenced-based curriculum

Teach and facilitate with dogs

We learn by example, and there is no better example of how to best comfort others than with dog – who are always accepting.

Learn comfort as a skill

We explain the link between kindness and comfort by introducing the Awkward Zone™. Participants break through their barriers.

Enrichment activity

This is an enrichment activity that puts all of these core lessons into practice by creating an example of empathy through artwork.

Where we work

Teaching and providing comfort to the next generation

We work directly with:

Public school systems

Private school systems

Home school communities

After school programs

Church youth groups

Troubled youth programs

Daycare programs

FCA groups

Summer camps

Special needs programs

Sensory rooms

Boys and Girls Club

Interested in working with us?
Spotlight Story

Althea’s Story

A story of how 13-year-old Althea told Alby Comfort Dog a deep, dark secret that ultimately freed her from her abuser.

Read Althea’s Story →