After the success of Elisa’s article about the very sad end to the bright life of the well respected and talented Dr. Stacey Radin, I felt that I needed to learn a little bit more about this lady. I was intrigued about her female leadership program which is named ‘Unleashed’. It was one element of her work. I wanted to find out more about it but knew that it combined animal rescue with empowering young women and girls. Of course I am very interested in animal rescue generally.
Unleashed
Unleashed is a unique combination of an animal rescue organization and a facility for teaching leadership skills in girls and young women as lead by Dr. Stacey Radin. The title ‘Unleashed’ is very descriptive. It portrays the unleashing of the hidden inner strengths of young women to enable them to achieve in a competitive world.
Fortunately, there is a nice video on the sparkie.io website in which Stacey speaks about the program. I have used the interview to complete this article. It is a very clever program pulling together what appears to be too diverse aspects of life: the empowerment of individuals to be able to achieve through confidence and assertiveness and animal rescue.
A hook to get interest
Radin used animal rescue as a ‘hook’ to bring the girls into her leadership program in the words of Radin. She quickly found that girls and young women are very interested in animal rescue and therefore is able to channel this interest into allowing her to guide them on empowerment and assertiveness. This is my interpretation.
Unleashed is a 12 week after school program of one and a half hours per week. In both rescuing animals and teaching leadership skills the organization has a dual purpose and it proudly has a very high rate of successful adoptions.
Two-way street
Girls naturally feel that they are rescuing the puppies but it is a two-way street because the puppies are in a subtle way helping the girls. Stacey Radin says that animal rescue gives the girls the emotional space to think about issues and communicate them.
Unleashed animal rescue empowers the girls because it allows them to see success in animal rescue. This can be a platform for other areas of activity in which they can work in the future. It is, therefore, a program which advances the next generation of women leaders.
