NEADS Inc.

NEADS World Class Service Dogs ("NEADS Inc.", formerly known as National Education for Assistance Dog Services and Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans) was established in 1976. <br><br>NEADS World Class Service Dogs are highly trained to:<br><br>* Provide independence and companionship when matched with people who are deaf or have physical disabilities, and also certain veterans who have PTSD<br>* Promote confidence and socialization when matched with children who have autism or other developmental disabilities<br>* Provide integrated therapeutic assistance when matched with caring professionals in settings like classrooms, hospitals, courthouses, mental health practices, and the ministry<br><br>NEADS has trained more than 1,900 Service Dog teams from all states since 1976. Each year we train over 50 teams and hold two graduation ceremonies per year to mark the occasions.

By investing in the success of our valued clients, employees, dogs, and volunteers, we will provide

Goal One: Coordinate and collaborate across all canine-related areas to ensure we are breeding, raising, and training World Class Service Dogs and to increase client matches.

Goal Two: Further develop the breeding program to increase yield of NEADS-appropriate candidates.

Goal Three: Create a high-quality employee engagement aligned with our purpose and culture to inspire a workforce committed to our mission and invested in our success.

In the past 12-18 months, we have put in place a mentoring program for new and future leaders and provide coaching for new leaders. We have also started creating a more formal leadership development program, even though over the past 12-18 months the majority of our efforts as an organization has been focused on addressing the covid-related impacts that continue to affect day-to-day operations. Our new strategic initiative that focuses on employee engagement will formalize our investment in leadership development as well as development of all employees.

To fulfill our mission, we need a steady source of puppies entering our program and sufficient capacity to train them over an 18 to 24 month period. Covid 19 had a fundamental impact on both these critical components of our operations. Given the nearly 2 years needed to train our dogs before they are placed with clients, we continue to adapt to this impact. Supply of dogs: Puppies largely ceased to be available from external sources, so our nascent breeding program became critical to our operation. In June 2022 we opened our own state-of-the-art Breeding Center, after conducting a successful capital campaign launched and completed in the height of the pandemic. The Breeding Center is the cornerstone of our breeding program and critical to the future stability and growth of our organization. Sufficient capacity for training: Pre-Covid, most of our dogs were trained in 6 prison facilities under the guidance of staff trainers, beginning at 8 weeks of age until they completed training at 18 to 24 months of age. A smaller group of dogs began by living full-time with volunteers (Full-Time Puppy Raisers), again under the guidance of NEADS staff, prior to moving in to a prison facility for finish training. When Covid hit, the prison program shut down. Two years later prison capacity is still not at pre-Covid levels, so we have had to modify our training program without compromising our high standards. We have done this by working with existing prisons to achieve pre-Covid capacity; by looking for opportunities to expand to other prisons; by increasing the number of dogs that start out with full-time volunteers and finish training in prison; and by increasing the capacity of our staff trainers to work directly with dogs for finish training (in addition to working with the inmate handlers).