Youth Programming
Sharing the value of compassion is an important part of our mission. We offer humane education programming to our community’s youth, as together we build a more humane world.
Browse our Youth Programming
AWS’ on-site Youth Programs, including day camps, Rescue Readers, and after school clubs are on hiatus for the 2024-2025 school year. You can find us out in the community at events and programs, sharing our love for animals and offering humane education lessons to our community’s youth.
Special Events
Youth Blog
Humane education lessons incorporate companion animals to help children grow emotionally, socially, culturally and academically. Children who are introduced to humane education are more engaged in their community, more compassionate towards those around them, and more knowledgeable about animals and the world we share.
Upcoming Youth Programs
We offer lessons and programs for children of all ages. Check out what’s coming up soon!
Frequently Asked Questions
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You’re Invited!
Special Youth Programs with AWS
Special youth programs events take place seasonally at AWS. They are free, family-friendly lessons and celebrations for children of all ages. Unless otherwise noted, please leave family pets at home.
Check out our Youth Programs Calendar to see what special events and learning opportunities are taking place soon.
Spring Bunny Hop
Celebrate warmer days, blooming flowers, and adorable animals with AWS Youth Programs. There will be crafts, stories, face-painting, and springtime animals to meet! Free and fun for the whole family!
(Please leave family pets at home.)
Youth Parade Brigade
March with Youth Programs Coordinator, Miss Amanda, and her doodle dog, Bowie, behind the AWS van in local community parades! Children must be accompanied by a parent/guardian, and so it’s fun for the whole family. Bring a favorite stuffie or your family dog* to join in the fun! Kids receive an AWS cloth backpack and stickers to wear in the parade (as supplies last).
(*Please be sure that your entire party, including dogs, is comfortable in a parade setting before joining the AWS Parade Brigade.)
Paloween
At this FREE, non-spooky, family-friendly event, we’ll have fun crafts, a costume parade for the kiddos (parents, bring those cameras to get pics!), trick-or-treating, and a Halloween themed scavenger hunt around the AWS’ campus. The majority of the event will be held outside so please dress accordingly.
Kids, please bring your own trick-or-treat bag or pail so you can go home with lots of candy, treats, and prizes!
Kids Holiday Party
Fun for the whole family*! Get in the holiday spirit with your AWS friends. Stories, snacks, crafts, pets of all kinds and more! Bring a gift for the pets spending the holidays at AWS.
Drop in anytime! We’ll have special guests to read holiday-themed stories. Crafts run for the whole party. Pets, including cats, dogs and small animals, will be available to visit!
Youth Blog
A blog just for AWS’ youngest participants and their families! Here we feature helpful humane education projects, upcoming youth events, important announcements, fun learning opportunities and lots of ways for students to get involved with pets at AWS and those right in their community. If you’re a pet-loving student (or teacher) who wants to advocate for and learn about animals, you’ve come to the right place!
Questions?
For more information about the programs we offer our community’s youth, please email or telephone (207) 985-3244 ext. 109.
Follow Us!
With basic training classes not starting till the new year, you can still get started on your dog’s training journey now by enrolling in Frosty’s Festive Foundations, part of our popular Reindeer Games!
In three hour-long weekly sessions, you and your dog will learn how to communicate, practice focusing and how to resist distractions. These foundational skills will give your pup a head start when you sign up for full-fledged training class in January, such as our 6-week Basic Training classes.
You’ll be a jolly happy soul when you join us for the Reindeer Games. Thumpety Thump Thump, Thumpety Thump Thump look at your dog go!
Visit the link in our bio to enroll today!
As reported this week, AWS is caring for a number of shih tzus taken in by state`s Animal Welfare Program last month. We are pleased to announce that the dogs are receiving much needed veterinary care at our Community Veterinary Clinic and many will ready for adoption very soon. In the meantime, our amazing foster families have opened up their homes to these dogs, showing them love and compassion, teaching them basic skills on how to be a family pet, and giving them a home-like setting liked they`ve never experienced.
We have received a lot of inquiries into the shih tzus. We are grateful for the interest, and thank you for your support and well wishes. We ask for patience as we get the dogs ready for the next chapter of their lives. Some have significant medical hurdles to overcome and others simply need a little more time to decompress in their foster homes before they are ready to be adopted. All adoptable pets are posted on our website as soon as they become available. Therefore, we encourage those interested in adopting one of the shih tzus to keep an eye on our website ➡➡ https://animalwelfaresociety.org/adoption/dogs/
As with all our adoptable pets, when you see a dog online that you’d like to meet/adopt, please follow the instructions on how to adopt from AWS. All adoptions at AWS are first come, first served, so we will not be taking a list of names or offer "pre-applications" for any of the shih tzus. ➡➡ https://animalwelfaresociety.org/adoption/how-to-adopt/
Our Adoption Center is open daily (closed Thanksgiving Day) from 10 am - 3:30 pm and we are located in Kennebunk, Maine. Thank you for helping us, and our fellow Maine shelters, support the state of Maine`s Animal Welfare Program when they needed us most. We know these shih tzus have a wonderful future ahead of them!
Meet Certificate, Associate, Bachelor and Masters. These kittens all majored in cuteness!
Visit the link in our bio to adopt these graduates.
#adoptme #kittens
We`re just as happy about this sunny Monday as Reef is on his dog date today!
Visit the link in our bio to learn more about our dog date program, and head to the adoption page to meet Reef! #adoptme
For Animal Shelter Appreciation Week we encouraged you to share your Happy Homes stories with us, and you delivered! We wanted to share some of your stories that stood out to us.
Sesame now Chance:
“I adopted Chance in July of 2022. I should say he chose me. He has such a funny personality-he is quite vocal at 5am. Really he is adorable and a complete joy.”
Read Happy Homes and to share your story at the link in our bio.
