INDIANAPOLIS — International Assistance Dog Week, an annual recognition week that honors service dogs and their trainers is August 6-12. Indiana Canine Assistant Network, based in Indiana, is one of the accredited organizations training dogs for service in the community.
ICAN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2002 that trains and places assistance dogs with Hoosiers and veterans living with disabilities. Over the past 20 years, they have successfully placed nearly 250 service dogs, helping these children and adults find hope and independence.
Currently, they have about 60 dogs in training. These canines will become mobility assistance, veteran (psychiatric service), facility, or on-home skilled companion service dogs.
But what makes ICAN even more unique is that it also doubles as a pathway to rehabilitating incarcerated individuals, as they serve as the trainers of the organization’s dogs.
These incarcerated trainers, or handlers, are housed at three Indiana prisons: Pendleton Correctional Facility, Correctional Industrial Facility, and the Indiana Women’s Prison.
Their prison program helps handlers move beyond their mistakes and learn skills they need to successfully return to the community — all by training service dogs that help someone else in need.
ICAN unites these unlikely communities to help others overcome challenges together, creating a beautiful mosaic that makes it possible to embrace differences through similarities and treat one another with respect and dignity.
ICAN is only one of two North American programs accredited by Assistance Dog International (ADI) that focuses on inmate rehabilitation. ICAN is the only service dog organization in Indiana accredited by ADI, which requires a complete program survey every five years.
