Giving Back at WESST
- shannonhurley1004
- Jan 14
- 2 min read
By Jennifer Lim | January 14, 2025
During WESST’s annual December Statewide Staff Meeting, the WESST team split up to engage in volunteer activities to support two amazing local nonprofit organizations: Paws & Stripes and Free Flow New Mexico.
Paws and Stripes’ mission is to provide animal-assisted therapy and other mental health services to military veterans and their loved ones living with service-connected trauma. Paws and Stripes offers unique and extensive approaches that set their organization apart from others who also focus on the same or similar populations. WESST’s team helped make “snuffle mats,” which are enrichment toys which provide exercise and mental stimulation and help dogs channel their natural foraging instincts.
We also had the opportunity learn from Paws and Stripes’ Team Training Manager, Aliah Clever, and her sweet dog Wolfram. Aliah taught us a great deal about how service dogs can be trained to support humans. There are hundreds of types of service dogs, and Paws and Stripes focuses specifically on needs of veterans who come back from service with PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and/or mobility challenges.
Aliah and her team train dogs to complete psychiatric assistance tasks, provide light mobility assistance, and respond to anxiety behaviors. Paws and Stripes matches dogs from local shelters and rescues with veterans who go through their training journey together, which can take between 1 year and 18 months. Services dogs and their humans grow and heal together. Aliah said, “we’re saving two lives at a time.”
Visit Paws and Stripes website to learn all about their mission and impact: https://www.pawsandstripes.org/
Fun Fact: Paws and Stripes was established in 2010 by WESST’s new President, Lindsey Kay!
Free Flow New Mexico is dedicated to combating period poverty and menstruation stigma through six key programs focused on distribution and education. Believing period products should be as accessible as toilet paper, and no one should miss school, work, or daily activities due to lack of access, Free Flow NM serves a wide range of individuals, including students of all ages, people experiencing homelessness, and working and non-working individuals who cannot afford menstrual products.
Our team heard from Laurie Merrill, Executive Director and Founder, and Keely Lundy, and compiled 150 period kits, filled with period products like tampons and menstrual pads. The period kits were distributed at a Community Day in Santa Fe, serving hourly-wage workers, and distributed throughout our regional offices. We learned about the impact and cost of period poverty – Free Flow NM works to bridge this gap, enabling individuals to remain engaged in their lives.
Learn more about Free Flow New Mexico and ways to end period poverty: https://freeflownm.com/
Fun Fact: Free Flow NM celebrated their four year anniversary last year, distributing over half a million period products!
