Prerequisites for Membership

To become a Certified Member with a canine partner:

• You must be at least 18 years of age at the time of the screening evaluation.
• Your dog must be at least 18 months old at the time of the certification training workshop.
• You and your dog must be a registered member of a formal animal-assisted therapy organization and working with your dog as a therapy team for at least 12 consecutive months.
• You and your dog must have a minimum of 12 verifiable AAA/T visits within the last twelve months.
• You and your dog must successfully complete a HOPE AACR screening evaluation.
• You and your dog must successfully complete a certification training workshop.
• Your dog should not be easily stressed and should enjoy interacting with people.
• You should be in good health and be capable of handling the physical and mental stress of crisis response work and have sufficient energy levels adequate for crisis response work.
• Pay all fees related to screening and training workshop, membership fees, and purchase all necessary uniform items.

To become a Certified Member without a canine partner (Team Leader):

• You must be at least 18 years of age at the time of the screening evaluation.
• You should have some experience in animal-assisted therapy or some other experience working with dogs.
• You must successfully complete a HOPE AACR screening evaluation.
• You must successfully complete a certification training workshop.
• You should be in good health and be capable of handling the physical and mental stress of crisis response work.
• Pay all fees related to screening and training workshop, membership fees, and purchase all necessary uniform items.

We currently have seven regions in the United States:

• Central Gulf Coast (CGC): New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas & Louisiana
• Eastern (EUS): Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia
• Midwest (MWR): Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio & Missouri
• Pacific Northwest (PNW): Washington, Oregon, Idaho & Alaska
• Pacific Southwest (PSW): California, Nevada, Arizona & Hawai’i
• Rocky Mountain (RMR): Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, Colorado & Kansas
• Southeast (SER): Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina & Florida