The following links contain articles or stories about our organization, service animals or disabilities:

Caring for those with NEADS
Doreen Manning  08/18/2010  Worcester Mag
Everyday skills. Extraordinary independence. That is just one of the mottos of NEADS, a local agency that has been providing assistance dogs for deaf and disabled Americans for more than 30 years – right here in greater Worcester.  More...

The NEADS program provides companion dogs for people who are deaf or disabled.
Emma Bouthillette  06/09/2010  The Portland Press Herald
After living with multiple sclerosis for a number of years, constantly dropping things and struggling to pick them up, Robin Turek was relieved to know there was someone, or rather something, to help her out.  More...

Five Prison Charities Helping Inmates Give Back
Ben Murray  04/15/2010  Take Part
Convicted of a crime and placed behind bars, inmates can find a million ways to spend their time. Read, work out, dream of better days on the outside—or they can turn doing time into doing good.  More...

Extending a hand (and 4 ready paws) to aid Iraq veteran
by TOMAS DINGES  11/06/2009  New Jersey Star Ledger
During the first week of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Heriberto Vidro, 43, of Sayreville, was driving a tanker truck filled with jet fuel when the mortars began to fall.  More...

Inmates are training puppies to become service dogs
Sara Underwood  10/26/2009  MyFox Boston
CONCORD (FOX25, myfoxboston) - On a quintessential New England farm in Concord, Massachusetts, sits Northeastern Correctional Facility, home to 270 inmates. “The economy went down the drain, lost my job, had a mortgage to pay, robbed a couple of drug dealers,” says Russell Jones an inmate. “I made a mistake in 1997,” says Sergio Torres another inmate.  More...

Critically ill woman awaits four-legged allys
by mpilon  08/28/2009  Daily Hampshire Gazette
It was not until 2005, when the couple's third child, Heather, who was thought to have cerebral palsy, was at a hospital in Boston that doctors discovered Martin-Coleman's true condition. For some, the disease sets in during adulthood. For others, much sooner.  More...

Dog being trained to assist the disabled goes to college
By Jane Fusco, Director of RIC News and Public Rel  07/09/2009  Rhode Island College News
Beth Lewis teaches psychology at Rhode Island College. Students in her summer classes have an unusual classmate – a 10-month-old golden retriever named Grace who Lewis is training to become a classroom therapy service dog.  More...

Prison Pups
By Kyra Kirkwood  06/01/2009  dogslifemagazine.com
Death-row dogs across the country are getting a second chance at life from some unusual saviors: prisoners looking to locate their own second chances at a meaningful life. Some incarcerated for a few years, others for the better part of a lifetime, these inmates learn life traits, compassion, communication skills, work ethic, job skills and love as they take unwanted dogs out of shelters and train them to become ideal companions or even service dogs.  More...

NEADS Public Service Announcement
04/23/2009  Canines for Combat Veterans
This Public Service Announcement describes our Canines for Combat Veterans program that was established at NEADS in 2006 to support returning, wounded Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  More...

Ten years and counting: Mass. Prison Pup Partnership celebrates its success
02/26/2009  Ten years ago, NEADS (the National Education for Assistance Dog Services) and The Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) started a program in which puppies are placed in correctional facilities where they are raised by inmate trainers to become service dogs for the disabled. Since those humble beginnings, 94 dogs have been graduated into service, and there are currently 38 puppies in training.  More...

2 puppies report for duty at R.I. Veterans Home to be trained to assist disabled vets
By Richard Salit  02/11/2009  Projo.com
BRISTOL — One whimpered and cried. The other promptly relieved himself on the floor. But Labrador puppies Joe and Liberty, new arrivals at the Rhode Island Veterans Home, received the warmest and most anticipated welcome ever.  More...

Veterans Helped by Healing Paws
By KAREN JONES  11/10/2008  New York Times
DEUCE is a chocolate Labrador retriever who knows exactly which patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington give the best treats, said his owner, Harvey Naranjo. Both he and Deuce are part of the Military Advanced Training Center, a department at Walter Reed that cares for severely disabled veterans.  More...

SUE DOWNES AND LILA
11/10/2008  New York Times
Sue Downes, 28, enlisted in the Army in 2004 as a precursor to a career in law enforcement. In 2006 she was deployed to Afghanistan as a military police officer, and there, on Nov. 28, her military vehicle exploded after hitting an improvised explosive device.  More...

Haskell has fitting namesake
By Paula J. Owen CORRESPONDENT  10/02/2008  Telegram.com
LEOMINSTER— NEADS volunteer Kathy A. Haskell of Leominster hopes to raise a young black Labrador retriever puppy named Haskell.  More...

Prison pups - Inmates and canines reap lasting rewards from training program at Pondville Center in
BY JENNIFER ROACH  09/07/2008  THE SUN CHRONICLE
Jewel, an 8-month-old Shiloh shepherd puppy, has spent most of her life behind bars, though this silver-haired beauty is anything but bad to the bone. She and two other dogs are members of the current class of the National Education for Assistance Dog Service, and are going through an assistance training program at the Pondville Correctional Center.  More...

One Dog, Two Lives Changed
By Rita Savard rsavard@lowellsun.com  08/15/2008  The Sun - Lowell, Masahusetts
CONCORD — Dark days. Edward Chapman lived them while selling crack on street corners to make a fast buck. “My eyes were closed for a long time,” said Chapman, who turned 55 last week inside the Northeast Correctional Center, a minimum security prison in Concord.  More...

Is Benedictine Hospitality Going To The Dogs?
Sisters of St. Benedict of Our Lady of Grace Monas  07/01/2008  Sisters of St. Benedict of Our Lady of Grace Monastery Summer 2008 Vol. 21 No. 2  More...

Magazine gives $5,000 to NEADS organization
By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT  06/23/2008  Telegram.com
PRINCETON — Four years after her 2004 vacation to Hawaii, MaryKay Mullally is still seeing its impact, as is NEADS, Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans. NEADS was designated as Ms. Mullally's charity when she entered Prevention magazine's “Picture of Health” contest, which she won for her work with Step Up for Life.  More...

A Soldier and His Service Dog
By Sheila O’Brien  05/01/2008  Exceptional Parent
“The war took away the sight in one of my eyes, my arm, and the mobility in my legs, but when I got my service dog, Ruthie, I felt like a soldier again.” These words, so eloquently spoken by 22-year-old retired Sergeant Christopher Strickland, describe the close bond between him and his service dog, Ruthie.  More...

ABC 7 News - Canines for Combat Veterans Video
01/11/2007  ABC 7 News New York
View an video produced by ABC 7 news about our new Canines for Combat Veterans program.  More...

Trained by Inmates, New Best Friends for Disabled Veterans
By STEPHANIE STROM  10/31/2006  New York Times
CONCORD, Mass., Oct. 27 — Rainbow looks like any other Labrador retriever, but she is not a pet. Trained by a prison inmate, her mission is to help Roland Paquette, an injured veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, stay on his new feet, the ones he got after an explosion destroyed his legs.  More...

Celebration of love - Dogs help disabled veterans enjoy life
By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT  10/30/2006  Telegram.com
LEOMINSTER — For Army Staff Sgt. Roland Paquette, yesterday's 30th anniversary celebration and fall graduation of the National Education for Assistance Dog Services marks a beginning.  More...

Retriever is golden at job
By Taryn Plumb  07/10/2006  Telegram.com
WORCESTER — In many ways, the crimp-eared golden retriever Elliott is just as imperfect as the children and adolescents he helps: He can be lackadaisical, he sometimes has problems following orders and the spots on his tongue prevent him from leading the pampered life in the dog show circuit that he was bred for.  More...

Lending a helping paw - A working relationship
By Tony Dobrowolski, Berkshire Eagle Staff  01/15/2006  Berkshire Eagle
PITTSFIELD . On a handmade, wood sign located near the door to Merle Ferber's apartment, the letters of her last name, and that of her former service dog, Radar, are intertwined. The sign is a fitting tribute to the long working relationship that Ferber had with Radar, who helped her perform tasks as she traveled in her wheelchair. A smooth collie, Radar was so popular that he was inducted into the American Working Collie Association Hall of Fame two years ago. It's hard to find a replacement for a dog like that. But Ferber feels that she has.  More...

Shapleigh, Man's Best Friend
NEADS YouTube Video  05/28/2005  Shapleigh, a chocolate lab, greyhound mix, has been partnered with John Defazio for over 2 years. See how Shapleigh has changed John's life.  More...

Partnering with Correctional Facilities to Raise and Train Assistance Dogs
Sheila O’Brien, M.Ed  05/13/2005  Service Dogs / New Horizons
The practice of placing dogs in prison for inmates to train was conceived in 1981 when Sister Pauline Quinn approached the administration of the Washington State Correctional Center for Women. Having had a dog named “Joni” help her survive a devastating young adulthood, she knew first hand how animals could enhance self-esteem and heal wounds. Who better to experience this healing than the women in this maximum-security prison?  More...

Best Friend: Loyal Labrador Specially Trained In Human Work
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL  02/11/2005  Vineyard Gazette
Since last fall Estelle T. Burnham has had a new friend, a companion in hard times. Confined to a wheelchair, Ms. Burnham, 64, of Edgartown spends her day with a dog. His name is Braun, and this one-and-a-half-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever offers her attention and care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  More...

Hearing-impaired woman gets guide
KARSTEN STRAUSS  12/19/2004  Register-Citizen, Connecticut
MORRIS - It's widely known that the companionship of a well-trained dog can greatly improve the lives of the blind. Less known, but equally helpful, are the services of hearing aid dogs trained by the National Education for Assistance Dog Services, a nonprofit organization based in Princeton, Mass., that trains canines to assist the hearing impaired and physically disabled.  More...

Program Lets Inmates Train Service Dogs
09/23/2004    More...

A Different Journey; Living with Disabilities
08/16/2004  New Hampshire Outlook
Parenting a child with disabilites can seem a daunting task. But a new book of essays from successful adults with disabilities shows the amazing power parents have to give their children wings. The book is uplifting and instructive for parents of all children. We will talk to the editor, and two writers whose essays appear in the book.  More...

Rutland couple receives Professional Excellence Award
by Janetta Petkus  10/24/2001  The Landmark
The Department of Corrections, which sponsors the Beyond Excellence Performance Recognition Program, awarded Maureen and Ted Gustafson of Rutland with the 2001 Professional Excellence Award for the North Central Corrections Institute in Gardner. A banquet honoring them, and other recipients, was held in Randolph on October 12.  More...

Dogs are eyes, ears, friends to new owners and stuff
By Ken Maguire  10/01/2001  Associated Press
BOSTON — Former prison inmate Michelle Ackerman loves Sampson the dog so much that she would have stayed in jail an extra three weeks to finish training him.  More...