Five of us visited a Dogs for Good "engagement meeting" to learn how the dogs are trained and hear stories of how they are used. 
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This coming week will see the Children Singing for Children Concerts at St Mary's Church in Banbury.
(If you want something to lift your spirits from the winter and political gloom - try one of these events!)
Anyway - all of the financial surplus from these concerts will go to Children's Charities, one of which is Dogs for Good who provide dogs that revolutionise the lives of autistic children.
We were invited along to an engagement meeting to see how the dogs were trained and to hear first hand just how these dogs transform lives.
The initial session demonstrated the training of a dog to assist with a plethora of day-to-day tasks. It was hugely impressive and seemingly not unrelated to the dog's love of food!
We also heard from the mother of an autistic child. The child was largely confined to home until enabled to enter and function in the ouside world - by having a dog from Dogs for Good,
There were other stories of how dogs were transforming the lives of people with various impairments. They left one with no doubt the decision to award funding to this organisation was very definitely a good one!
You can read more about Dogs for Good and how to sponsor a puppy here.