There are two things that Aaron Houser, Executive Director of Growing Up Greene, wants you to know. One: local kids removed from dangerous situations at any hour of the day or night now have some place safe and comforting to go while arrangements are made for their wellbeing. And two, when they get to this new place, they’ll have a four-legged friend waiting to say hello.
Welcome to Greene County’s first Children’s Emergency Overnight Housing Program. And say hello to Coalbie the therapy dog.
This safe, comfortable place also serves double duty as the office of Growing Up Greene on 52 Church Street Waynesburg when it’s not needed for sudden overnight guests.
Many families are already familiar with this multi-roomed, almost magical space that transforms itself into a department store extraordinaire during Waynesburg’s Christmas Open House. When Church Street became Candy Cane Lane in 2023, elves from more than a dozen local nonprofits greeted 320 local kids and their families. They came to the office to pick out coats, hats, gloves, boots, and other winter gear, compliments of Iron Senergy’s Children’s Winter Gear Distribution, held by CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Greene County.
But bundling up for winter isn’t the only challenge facing some families.
Making life better for kids in crisis in Greene County was something that Houser and his team of board members grappled with as CASA faced situations unique to the rural community they serve. More than a year ago, Houser said he realized the outreach needed was “handcuffed by the name and logo and limitations on expanded programming and national leadership that isn’t familiar with how things operate in rural Pennsylvania.”
Houser and his board broke ties with the national organization (CASA) and became a local charity that continued to advocate for Greene County kids. Growing Up Greene was now free to expand programs essential to reducing the trauma of displacement. With no foster care group homes in the county and most out-of-county placements unavailable for after-hour intakes, children removed from their homes often end up in hotels “under rotating supervision until appropriate placement can be found. Hotel rooms are psychologically sterile by design and not intended to provide distraction or comfort to children who have just been through a very traumatic experience,” Houser said. Growing Up Greene was ready and able to do its part to solve this dilemma.
When two staff members at Children and Youth approached Houser last year about the need for emergency overnight housing for kids, Growing Up Greene worked with Snee-Reinehardt Charitable Foundation to provide partial funding, along with support from the Greene County CYS Advisory Board. County Commissioner Betsy Rohanna McClure helped with the remaining funds through Pennsylvania’s PHARE Program, and Nate Walker of T&N Contracting got to work on the office complex to create this unique space for kids that is now available whenever there is a need.
But the brightest breakthrough for kids’ mental wellbeing was the 2022 grant from the Staunton Farm Foundation that allowed Growing Up Greene to form an advisory committee to plan for a therapy dog program. This involved seeking expertise from members of the child-welfare community, school districts, and nonprofit program directors.
The committee joined forces with nationally renowned professor and local trainer Lyn Trapuzzano from Off Leash K9 Training to search for the right dog, based on professional input from the child welfare and education community. When Dr. Cynthia Chandler of the Consortium for Animal Assisted Therapy at the University of North Texas reviewed the committee’s findings and gave a thumbs-up, the search for the right therapy dog was on. CONSOL CARES, the foundation created to improve and strengthen the communities where CONSOL does business, is enthusiastically sponsoring Growing Up Greene’s pilot “Pup Program” to curb childhood trauma.
What better place to find a dog to comfort displaced kids than the Greene County Humane Society, with its kennels of displaced dogs and puppies, anxiously waiting to be taken home?
“I knew in my heart we were doing something amazing when members of the committee were using words like foster, trauma, adoption and education to describe the dog acquisition,” Houser said. “These are the same descriptions we use to measure child welfare outcomes.”
The search for the special dog was surprisingly easy, Houser said. “From the time we met Coalbie at the Greene County Humane Society, she exhibited the temperament and traits that are desirable in a therapy dog.”
That first meeting had its deciding moment when board Vice-President Keshia Weaver’s four-year-old son “fell and scraped his knee and this eight-month-old pup ran up to him and didn’t jump and play. She sat and put her head on his shoulder and he was crying. That’s when we knew,” Weaver said.
Trainer Trapuzzano is equally impressed with the now 15-month-old beagle mix, who spent much of her puppyhood being fostered at the shelter. “Her training helped to solidify her manners and skills, but the attributes that make her an invaluable resource to this community are her sensitivity and intuitive ability to read people and situations.”
Coalbie is already on the job during Greene County Dependency Court proceedings. She’s ready to hang out with kids asked to step out of the courtroom and wait as the process unfolds. Now they have a “docile pup who is happy to lie across their lap, get her ears pulled and give them plenty of puppy breath while she kisses their hands,” Houser said.
“Coalbie’s desire to remain at a scared child’s side can give them the confidence to ask tough questions and process the answers at their own pace,” board president Scott Kelley agreed.
Coalbie’s daily routine with Houser takes her out on the street to meet the public and into the offices of Children and Youth to cruise the bullpen where caseworkers do their office work. She gets her share of pets wherever she goes, Houser noted. “I did not anticipate how much help she would provide for the workers themselves, beyond the amazing reaction she has with the kids. Everyone seems to love her.”
The walls are sky blue at the office, and the Kids’ Corner room, once a relaxing place to wait while the adults were in court, has morphed to include bunk beds tucked against the wall and a television hanging from the ceiling when sleep is scarce. It feels like a super neat bedroom and there’s room for caseworkers to keep an eye out all night unobtrusively. There’s a fully equipped kitchen for making meals, a washer and dryer in another corner, and the new bathroom sports a shower. Artwork donated by retired Central Greene art instructor David Lesako is on the walls of the living room, with toys, huggables, books and games tucked into every corner.
This is the space Coalbie shares every day when she comes to work with Houser. This is the space she’ll be sharing with kids when they drop in to spend the night. Houser notes that Growing Up Greene has its own Facebook page, and a book is now available on Amazon with Coalbie as the star. Illustrated by local artist Grace Black and edited by psychologist Ashlee Shafer, it tells the story of Coalbie’s time in the puppy-welfare system, to connect with children facing the same challenges. Search for COALBIE on Amazon.com. All proceeds benefit Growing Up Greene’s future projects.
You may never have to spend the night with Coalbie, or sit with her outside a courtroom door, but if you see her and her best friend Aaron Houser taking a walk around Waynesburg, be sure to stop and say hello.
For more information, go online to growingupgreene.org and stay tuned for more updates on how the child welfare system in Greene County is improving.