PALMETTO ANIMAL ASSISTED LIFE SERVICES

1) Place as many service dogs with deserving individuals and families as our financial resources allow.
2) Provide Animal Assisted Education and Intervention programs to veterans and children using our service dogs in training
3) Educate the general public about service dogs and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We train service dogs for people with disabilities at no charge to them. We also provide assistance dogs to facilities that serve people with disabilities.

We share information about our services and programs through a variety of social media, web and printed materials as well as earned media through press releases and partnerships with local media organizations. These same sources are our outreach for fundraising.

We ensure our standards are high by being an accredited member organization of both Assistance Dogs International and Animal Assisted Intervention International.

We have a dedicated training facility with three full time, paid trainers as well as hundreds of volunteers to assist with raising and training our dogs and performing our programs.

We have developed an excellent pipeline of puppies from good breeding lines through our active participation in an international service dog breeding co-op.

We work with a variety of separate non-profit and community organizations to provide animal-assisted therapeutic, recreational and educational activities. These include libraries, the SC Department of Corrections, the Veteran's Administration, and others.

We currently have:

A Columbia, S.C. training facility, which we own
Three full time trainers
Five other employees, including a development coordinator for fundraising and marketing/outreach, an operations manager, a part-time administrative assistant, and animal care coordinators.
Hundreds of volunteers
Partnership with the South Carolina Department of Corrections for Prison PAALS. This innovative program provides select inmates with service dog training apprenticeships in exchange for the inmates' help in training PAALS dogs basic obedience cues.
Partnerships with more than a dozen veterinarians to provide comprehensive reduced cost care for our dogs
Partnerships with other non-profit, government and community group to provide animal-assisted therapeutic, recreational and educational activities.

Dogs that we trained are currently working in special needs classrooms, physical therapy practices, the local children's hospital, mental health counseling services specializing in PTSD, long term care facilities, and one is employed by the SC Department of Corrections Office of Victims Services.
Each year, we raise approximately $400,000 to support our work and provide PAALS service dogs at no charge to qualified people with disabilities and to facilities that serve people with disabilities
We sponsor half a dozen animal assisted educational, therapeutic and recreational programs annually.
We own our facility in N.E. Columbia, SC.
We employ a staff or 8, including three full time dog trainers
We now have more than 300 volunteers.
Since 2007, we have placed more than 100 dogs in various service roles.