Connecting homeless youths with dogs and cats in need

It started, Rachel Cohen says, when she got off her bicycle to talk to the homeless kids who live under the Grays Ferry Bridge.

They all kept dogs, for protection and comfort. Some wouldn't go to homeless shelters because they weren't allowed to take their dogs inside.

Cohen, then a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, had been pedaling back and forth to her volunteer job at PAWS, the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society, and thinking about a class that asked students to develop an idea for a community pilot program.

Now, two years later, Cohen, 21, is founder and CEO of Hand2Paw, which connects homeless kids with volunteer positions at the animal-welfare society, where the two-legged and four-legged offer attention and affection to one another.

"I feel like I have something in common with them, because they don't really have a home and I don't really have a home," said Carl, 21, of Philadelphia.

Like others in the program, Carl lives at Covenant House Pennsylvania, the center for homeless and runaway youths. He and others agreed to be interviewed on condition that their surnames not appear.

At PAWS, Carl said, his work includes everything from bathing dogs to sorting bedding to sweeping floors.

"I love dogs and I love cats," he said.

Takeia, a 19-year-old from Pottstown, said an important part of her work with cats was cuddling them, letting them feel affection.

"They need love just like you do," she said.

Most of the young people involved with Hand2Paw are between 17 and 21, and many are what Cohen refers to as "travelers." They've run away or been pushed onto the streets, heading toward their next destination - wherever it may be.

Some have bounced from relative to relative, couch to couch. Some have aged out of the foster-care system or been released from jail; they're seeking to navigate the world with few skills and little education.

Through Hand2Paw, about 80 youths have provided hundreds of hours of training, cage cleaning, grooming, and socialization to more than 1,500 animals, helping dogs and cats stay alert and behaviorally sound while waiting to be adopted.

Through the program, the youths learn responsibility and basic job skills. Those who don't innately like pets learn to treat animals with respect. The especially motivated can qualify for a paid six-week internship.

"These youths are some of the most dedicated and compassionate volunteers that I've ever met," Cohen said.

A few have even been offered jobs.

Portia Scott Palko, owner of Central Bark Doggy Daycare Philadelphia, hired a young man from Hand2Paw two weeks ago. He got the part-time, entry-level job because he had experience with animals and understood their need for a safe, hyperclean environment.

"He absolutely loves the animals," said Palko, who declined to identify the youth for privacy reasons. "He's a stick-with-it kind of person. That's really important to me."

When Cohen envisioned the organization that became Hand2Paw, she was thinking about how PAWS, a no-kill shelter, needed a volunteer workforce. PAWS operates two facilities: One in Grays Ferry accommodates 15 dogs and 100 cats. The other is an adoption center in Old City that draws from that animal population to offer three dogs and 40 cats at a time.

Cohen found the workforce at Covenant House, whose services include a 51-bed shelter.

"The real value is in the time they spend creating bonds with those animals," said Melissa Levy, executive director of PAWS. "We see kids who are cuddling kittens, working in the yards with dogs, just playing and having fun with the animals, which the animals don't get enough of."

Robert Zindell, program coordinator at Covenant House, said that at first he wondered how certain kids, toughened by the streets, would fare among dogs and cats. He found out he needn't have worried.

"It was a whole different side of them," he said. "You saw compassion; you saw empathy."

Many found motivation and pride in helping the animals, he said.

"That's why we continue to make sure this opportunity exists. . . . They really get something out of it."

Cohen, now a senior, will graduate in the spring with a degree in biology. She's still deciding on her future, perhaps as a veterinarian or social entrepreneur. She's intent on seeing Hand2Paw thrive, no matter who leads it.

She still notices homeless kids and their dogs living under the Grays Ferry Bridge. And she still gets off her bike to talk with them, delivering pet food and reminding the youths that Covenant House offers health-care services.

"A lot of them are runways, and they're struggling," she said, "but they really love their dogs."