MISSION:

Our mission is to help humans and dogs thrive together by empowering learners to become thoughtful, compassionate, and skilled. We strive to leave every student feeling more confident, more curious, and excited to keep learning.

VALUES:
While we are the home of BAT and it weaves throughout the Academy, we also believe there is no single right technique for every dog family. We value science, non-violence, creativity, critical thinking, and the wisdom that comes from humble listening: to our dogs, to one another, and to new evidence.

We recognize dogs as whole beings; shaped by their species, their individual histories, and their nervous systems. Behavior is an attempt to feel safe and good; it communicates what’s happening beneath the surface. We pay attention to the body, stress and regulation, safety and connection, species needs, environment, and the ways trauma and attachment shape experience. Our work supports learning grounded in felt safety, agency, and trust.

We honor humans as whole beings, too; shaped by culture, lived experience, identity, relationships, and their own nervous systems. We recognize that each person brings a unique history and perspective to their relationship with dogs, and that factors such as culture, access, and personal circumstances influence how learning is experienced. We strive to create a space where people feel respected and valued, where different perspectives can be explored with curiosity, and where belonging is something we practice and co-create together.

We value progress over perfection. Growth requires curiosity, humility, and a willingness to change our minds. We are committed to creating a learning community where kindness, respect, and thoughtful dialogue support both learning and belonging.

We are always in the process of becoming, continually reflecting on how to bring our actions into ever-closer alignment with our intentions and values.

The Mission at Work: What are We Doing?

• Love from the inside out. The Grisha Stewart Academy itself is a nourishing home for all people who live in consent-based community with dogs. While dog behavior and care remains our main focus, it’s woven in with self-compassion and community building. The GSA team is family (some biologically and some by choice) and we care about one another. I’m super-vigilant about self-care, community care, and work-life balance for the GSA community.
• Diamond Membership Scholarships for individuals. This is for any one who needs it, financially, but we especially encourage applications from aspiring dog training professionals in need whose communities are also underrepresented in dog training, including (but not limited to) People of the Global Majority (also called BIPOC – Black, Indigenous, People of Color), people with disabilities*, and people earning a living in countries in which our low membership rate is still too high. Donation value is over $4500/month and growing.
• Shelter Bundle Scholarships have provided free education for about 300 animal shelters and rescues, with more every month. Donation value > $250,000.
• I founded Stellar Village Folk School, a diverse collaborative cultural healing space dedicated to the skills and practices of belonging (co-owners Aaron Johnson, Grisha Stewart, Sabrina Simon, Sheniqua Trotman). Through Stellar Village, I coordinate Kinship Tending Crews at events (care teams to support belonging for all) and am planning on bringing that to the dog world. Learn more about creating a culture of belonging here. GSA members are always welcome to attend Stellar Village events.
• Cash donations. We donate to shelters, rescues, and cultural healing causes via the Affiliate program. You can help raise funds by becoming an affiliate and using your special links (or that money can go to you, instead). 20% of the purchase price for new students using your link goes to the charity of your choice. I also make donations directly to causes, separate from the affiliate program.
• As a speaker, I’ve signed The Minimum Viable Diversity Pledge: “I will never speak at any paid conferences or panels as part of a homogeneous group of speakers” and I keep that pledge.
  Note: individual webinars at my Academy aren’t conferences, as they usually have only one or two speakers. Over the course of our offerings, however, we have been and continue to be committed to ensuring representation for marginalized groups. The Grisha Stewart Academy has been working with BIPGM, LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse, and disabled speakers since our inception.
• Supporting Grief to Action as a monthly financial patron and being in the volunteer pool. “Grief to Action was founded to fill the needs of BIPOC in need of a place and community to facilitate healing and hope. We desire to grieve and process trauma at the pace of resistance and revolution and not at the pace of media coverage. Grief to Action is a semi-mobile camp with a land-based community in the Mojave Desert. We hold space on the land and with the land for deep grief and rage that gives birth to the creative solutions we need to resist and end oppressive systems. The land and sanctuary are Black-owned and Black-led centering the needed grief support for African-heritage folks and all People of the Global Majority.”
• Donations to various charity organizations for raffles, etc. If you have need for prizes, raffle items, prison programs, etc., just contact us. We’re happy to donate memberships or other in-kind educational products.
• Planet: I’ve switched my seminars and CBATI certification program to primarily online as a way to help the planet and of course also for my own self-care. This process was well underway even before the pandemic. We have digital offerings of all of my books and DVDs, to reduce our carbon footprint (and of course also for convenience). In the online store, we ship our products with post-consumer recycled packaging.
• Community Outreach. Free education and/or benefit seminars with various organizations. Also lots of free education via social media like AnyQuestion, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. We stand up for marginalized folks with fierce compassion and share posts that bring awareness to social advocacy opportunities. We also offer a packet of dog training/behavior handouts and other free offerings, including a webinar on separation anxiety offered by Malena DiMartini. We’re also planning another free webinar near Valentine’s Day about Blind dogs – stay tuned.
• Community In-reach: Our academy community for Diamond members is a safe, nourishing space with sub-communities offering peer support to various groups. We are all there to help each other succeed, and it shows in the quality of interactions. All classes also have written transcripts for accessibility. While we are not perfect, we are doing our best to make content accessible – both in terms of getting the information and using it, as we all have unique bodies with different levels of ability.
• Self-Care & Social Skills Course. The class is called How to Human: Thrival Skills for People Who Love Dogs. It’s offered on a sliding scale, from free to $99. Beyond survival is the land of “thrival.” Learning to live wholeheartedly by prioritizing authenticity and vulnerability helped me finally get to know and love myself. The changes I’ve made to my life gave me more time with my dogs, better relationships, and a lot more peace! I created this course to share the thrival skills that took me decades to learn. It’s life’s work (or maybe multiple lifetimes), but hopefully this information will complement what you’ve already been learning. May it help you on your path of joy.
• That’s all I can think of right now, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten something! There are also many tiny ways in which every member of the team works to share knowledge and bring more kindness to the world.

Thanks for reading and thank you for also doing your part! May you be healthy. May you be safe. May you know you belong. May you live a life of meaning and purpose. May you feel joy!