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