Come. Sit. Stay. Heal. Canine Therapy Corps (CTC) is a Chicago-based therapy dog organization providing interactive, goal-directed animal-assisted interventions (AAI) to people with physical and emotional challenges. In addition to making people FEEL better, our therapy dogs also empower people to GET better. Our 12 core programs are run in prominent healthcare and human services organizations and special needs schools. Since 1991, Canine Therapy Corps has provided these services free of charge.
In the United States, 1 in 5 people live with a disability. 1 in 59 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The costs associated with substance abuse in America, including criminal justice, treatment, and loss of productivity exceeds $1 trillion. 61% of men and 51% of women report exposure to at least one traumatic event. Therapy services, including animal-assisted interventions, support the quest to live a healthy life.
CTC programs focuses primarily on three therapeutic groups: 1) physical therapy 2) substance abuse and/or emotional trauma recovery and 3) autism and other cognitive or developmental delays. Successfully commanding CTC therapy dogs also gives participants confidence and a sense of control that is often missing. Our therapy dogs follow participants' commands, and the dogs' compliance provides continuous positive feedback, motivating them to work longer and harder in pursuit of their goals.
This project will increase our capacity to provide animal-assisted therapy, expand our presence in communities around Chicago, and give more individuals outlets to heal through the benefit of animal-assisted therapy. An example of programming we could open with increased resources is one tailored to the therapeutic needs of survivors of sex trafficking, which we have already been exploring.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
