Assistance dog nonprofit planning $9.5 million facility renovation

May 29

Paws With A Cause (PAWS), a Wayland-based nonprofit that custom-trains assistance dogs, has launched the public phase of its Embrace the Journey capital campaign for facility improvements.

The nonprofit’s first-ever community capital campaign will allow PAWS to reach more people with strategic facility upgrades to maximize efficiency. These improvements focus on five major areas: modernized training facilities, improved ADA accessibility, an upgraded veterinary clinic, a new Canine Village, and renovated breeding and foster puppy spaces.

According to PAWS CEO Michele Suchovksy, the nonprofit has outgrown the capacity to breed, raise, and train more Assistance Dogs in its current facilities, which staff and volunteers have been operating out of since 1994.

“Due to the age of our buildings, we are not working as efficiently as we could be. The existing breeding facilities are not configured to support an expanded Breeding Program. Our training spaces no longer reflect the contemporary lives of PAWS Clients and pose obstacles to our dogs in training. Inefficient building layouts prevent our veterinary, dog care, and training staff from most effectively caring for our dogs on a daily basis,” Suchovksy said. “Because of this and the lack of sufficient space, we simply cannot train additional PAWS Dogs to meet the requests we receive. The Embrace the Journey campaign will solve these issues and move us forward.”

The facility improvements needed to support the expansion of PAWS’ mission will cost $9.5 million to complete. Thus far, PAWS has raised over $7.7 million in charitable gifts towards the $9.5 million campaign goal and is now looking to the community for help raising the remaining $1.8 million.

“Each custom-trained PAWS Dog opens a world of possibilities – inspiring independence, confidence, companionship, and dignity for individuals, families, and communities,” Suchovksy said. “This campaign will allow us to serve more people and create thriving communities for us all. We need everyone’s help in securing the last $1.8 million to ensure that we can achieve all we have planned and serve more Clients.”

The proposed plans for the building improvements will be finalized in July in collaboration with FMD Architects and Dan Vos Construction. Construction is scheduled to begin in September.

To learn more, please visit www.pawswithacause.org/embrace-the-journey/.