Julie Weiss

In my encore, I have started a non-profit called Canine Community Corps. Working in Maine and New Hampshire, we rescue shelter dogs, arrange for inmates at the county jail to train them, and then adopt them out to veterans with PTSD as emotional support assistants.

Currently, I’m the sole staff person (Executive Director/Janitor), working for a modest stipend while we implement our program and raise money to keep the work going.

The Canine Community Corps began as a graduate school project of mine. At 51, I enrolled in a Masters in Social Work program at the University of New England. I was taking a class on program development and the assignment was, “If you could develop any program you wanted, what would it be?” This was my program.

When the class ended, I decided I wasn’t going to let it go (like a dog with a bone, as they say). I was going to make it a reality.

My passion grows from my love of dogs. As anyone who’s had an important animal in their life knows, relationships with animals can transform us. (Mine with Cassie, my late lab/beagle mix, certainly transformed me.)

I thought about the good that an animal could do for someone struggling with trauma or incarceration or the like. What if I could connect dogs with people who need them?

We’ve only just started implementing the program, but it’s great to see what’s happening already – such as the relationship between Sam and Rocky.

Sam is an Iraqi vet with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD, and Rocky, a Belgian Malanois, who was at the Animal Welfare Society in Kennebunk, Maine. They fell in love at first sight.

Rocky is a super-high-energy dog who barely made it out of a kill shelter in Georgia, and would not have done well staying at the animal welfare center for too long–he’s too active and too smart. Sam is going through a lot of changes in his life right now, and Rocky is becoming his companion.

Rocky is totally tuned into Sam. And Sam is quickly learning how to deal with Rocky with a quiet voice and even affect—which is good for both of them.

Were I still in my 30’s or even 40’s, I don’t believe I would have attempted to pull this off. Older (50+) workers bring the wisdom that comes from life experience and the confidence that comes from having worked for a long time. Wisdom guides decision-making and action; and confidence enables us to ask questions, to accept feedback without feeling threatened and, in my case hopefully, to take my idea from dream to reality.