Grantor Name: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU)’s Wounded Warrior Service Dog Project (WWSDP)
Program Name: Service Dog Training Program
Grant Amount: $199,100
Recipient Name: Soldier’s Best Friend
Overview of Use of Funds: Good Works Grant Writing is excited to congratulate our client, Soldier’s Best Friend, on being selected to receive a $199,100 Wounded Warrior Service Dog Project (WWSDP) grant from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU)! This generous government grant will directly support Soldier’s Best Friend’s 2027 Service Dog Training Program in serving 20 veteran/dog teams. Through this unique program, veterans living with combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are carefully paired with dogs, most rescued from local shelters. This unique approach—teaching veterans to train their dogs until they reach Service Dog certification status—is called the owner/trainer model. It has been proven effective in mitigating symptoms of PTSD and TBI, both through Soldier’s Best Friend’s survey results and through national research by various universities and the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA).
Overview of Grant Objective/Impact: Soldier’s Best Friend measures the impact of their Service Dog Training Program through intake procedures, including demographics, military service information, and other information related to their participants’ needs for management of their PTSD/TBI. According to Soldier’s Best Friend’s projections based on previous results, 85% of their 2027 program graduates will report a reduction in symptoms of PTSD/TBI; a reduction in suicidal thoughts; and an improvement in their quality of life (typically including re-engaging with family and community); 65% of graduates will report a 25% or more overall reduction. The most dramatic improvements will be in: Having strong physical reactions to reminders of stressful experiences (heart pounding, trouble breathing); feeling distant or cut off from other people; avoiding external reminders of the stressful experience; and suddenly feeling or acting as if the stressful experience were happening again.