The Christian Science Monitor

Pet grooming: how one woman thinks it can help people exit the poverty cycle

Natasha Kirsch is offering training in pet grooming because, among other reasons, jobs in the field tend to pay a living wage.

Tanisha Davis remembers the struggles of raising three children without sufficient income or housing.

“I was really just in a financial hardship, not really having a stable place to stay,” Ms. Davis recalls. “I stayed in my car, hotels.”

That all changed in January 2016 when she became part of the first class of The Grooming Project, an intensive, 23-week hands-on training program that readied her for a career in pet grooming – an expanding field that offers higher-than-average hourly wages of $19 an hour, according to the initiative.

Since graduating from the program, not only has Davis earned a living wage for her and her children, but she’s also had a new network of supports at the ready.

The Grooming Project is the principal initiative of Empowering the Parent to Empower the Child – a nonprofit in Kansas City,

How to take action

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor2 min readCrime & Violence
An Honest Hearing In Gibraltar
Many people may know Gibraltar only by its wedge-shaped outcropping at the opening of the Mediterranean Sea or by the Beatles song about the marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Yet it may now be poised to show how perceptions of government malfeasa
The Christian Science Monitor5 min readCrime & Violence
Wary Supreme Court Voices Skepticism About Abortion Pill Case
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard its biggest abortion case since it overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. And for the most part, the justices appeared skeptical that they should even be hearing the case at all. In one of the m
The Christian Science Monitor5 min readInternational Relations
Israelis Begin To Sour On Biden As US Ratchets Up Pressure Over Gaza
The joke making the rounds in Israel’s political circles goes something like this: Everybody knows Joe Biden’s top priority is the two-state solution – the two states being Michigan and Pennsylvania. The play on President Biden’s insistence that a pa

Related Books & Audiobooks