WHO WE ARE
Operation Freedom Paws is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers veterans, children and other individuals with disabilities to regain their freedom to live full lives. We teach them to train a rescued dog and create lifesaving service dog teams. Service dogs help individuals cope with everything from PTSD, traumatic brain injuries and depression to seizures and mobility issues. To date, we've been honored to serve 440 individuals and their families and rescued 377 dogs from an uncertain future (some clients do enter our program with their own dogs if they qualify for service).
MISSION 20 CAMPAIGN
In November, Military Times reported that we're losing 20 veterans a day to suicide. The crushing mental and physical stressors of COVID-19 have made the need and our desire to serve our veterans and their families even greater.
In service to our veteran clients, we've launched our Mission 20 Campaign. We're asking for your help to fund 20 lifesaving service dog teams in 20 days. You can either contribute to funding a team or become an OFP champion by fully funding a team. By making an OFP champion donation, you empower us to welcome a veteran in need into our program and put a four-legged healer by their side. New clients will be provided with our 48-week training program including service dogs, mental health therapy and treatment modalities, veterinarian visits, physical rehabilitation equipment, temporary housing and a safe place to go 24/7, at no cost to them. Our commitment doesn't end at graduation, graduates and their families continue to receive resources and OFP community for a lifetime.
OFP Champion Donation: $20,000 per team
Donate Now
Operation Freedom Paws is ready to serve our veterans who have served us.
Will you champion a lifesaving human-canine team?
All donations are SOC 2 Compliant and assure the highest level of security, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of customer data.
OUR FOUNDER - MARY CORTANI
Mary has been training dogs for more than 2 decades, starting with her military career where she prepared dogs for sentry and explosive detection work. Mary is a Vietnam-era veteran and a Certified Army Master of Canine Education. Aside from general and advanced obedience, she's also trained dogs for wilderness search and rescue and has expertise in canine behavior modification. Mary is an American Kennel Club Certified Canine Good Citizen© Evaluator.
Operation Freedom Paws enables Mary to leverage her lifelong love of dogs, her extensive training and military experience, a results-driven and teachable training philosophy, and an intuitive sense for matching dogs to clients. Mary can see beyond the pain and trauma to see the potential that lies within her clients.
Mary has won numerous awards for her hard work including: A Top Ten CNN Hero, American Red Cross Clara Barton Award, The Coretta Scott King Award, KSBW local and national Jefferson Awards and special Congressional honors. But if you ask Mary what her biggest accomplishments is, she'll say it's helping her clients to heal.
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
In 2010, a veteran who was suicidal reached out to our founder Mary. He had been on a program list for three years waiting to be matched with a service dog. Mary answered the call and found her calling. Operation Freedom Paws was born.
Thank you to our graduate clients who now share their voices and stories in service to others.
"Out of the Dark" HEAL! A project by Vicki Topaz
"Say Hi to Ruthie" HEAL! A project by Vicki Topaz
"A Big Blessing" HEAL! A project by Vicki Topaz
RESEARCH AND REAL IMPACT
We value your hard earned resources. Your donation goes directly toward making a profound, measurable difference in our clients lives. Operation Freedom Paws is an efficient, grassroots organization with a decade of proven experience and a strong work ethic. Our team is comprised largely of professionals who served in the military or grew up in military families. We're humbled that during an incredibly challenging time when so many nonprofits are doing good work, Operation Freedom Paws was named the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce "2021 Nonprofit of the Year" based on impact.
During COVID-19, we've all experienced moments of isolation, depression and anxiety. Imagine those feelings compounded by existing physical and psychological trauma. That's why seeing our graduate survey results is so rewarding. Our graduates continue to do the work and reengage the world as mentor-trainers, advocates, authors, healthcare workers, teachers, better parents and partners, to name a few of their accomplishments.
Who We Serve
The Real Impact
Here are the latest Operation Freedom Paws graduate survey results
U.S. Army veteran, Jeremy Ramirez, is conducting his doctoral thesis on the health benefits service dogs offer to improve a veteran's quality of life. Jeremy has enlisted experts in service dog training from across the country, including Operation Freedom Paws, for a 2 year scientific-research study at Johns Hopkins University. We hope it will lead to advancements and inform policy-making that will benefit our veterans nationwide.
A NEW PARTNERSHIP IN HEALING
Operation Freedom Paws and Stella Center
Founder and Executive Director, Mary Cortani, is excited to announce our new partnership with the Stella Center. Operation Freedom Paws will now be able to offer our clients suffering with PTSD another healing modality, the Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB).
Dr. Lipov, Chief Medical Officer of Stella, has been credited with modifying the 100 year old Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB) to alleviate PTSD symptoms during a single outpatient procedure. Stella's unique dual SGB injection has shown 80% effectiveness in relieving symptoms of PTSD.
"Dr. Lipov discovered and perfected a modern treatment for PTSD. He is one of the world's renowned innovators in anesthesiology. He understands how my patients hurt and he has helped them heal." - Dr. Frank Ochberg, Founding Father of Trauma Science.
We are looking forward to offering this treatment to our clients who are good candidates and helping them to advance along their healing journey.
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
"Four Paws, Two Feet, One Team"
Co-authored by veterans, Mary Cortani and Connor Quinn, "Four Paws, Two Feet, One Team" helps to teach kids about the vital roles service dogs play in the lives of our veterans, children and other individuals with disabilities.
We're honored that San Jose State University is utilizing "Four Paws, Two Feet, One Team" as a teaching tool. SJSU Fellows will work with local after-school programs to provide computer programming enrichment to underserved third through sixth grade children. With guidance from the Fellows, children will read the book and create a computer program based on what they learned.
Here is a beautiful read of "Four Paws, Two Feet, One Team" by actor, singer, author, comedian and Operation Freedom Paws' supporter, Jane Lynch, in support of our fundraising efforts.
