The Human-Animal Alliance

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Directly funding programs that recognize animals as essential partners in healing, connection, and purpose.

10/29/2026

Has an animal ever introduced you to your next friend?

Maybe it started with learning a dog’s name before learning their person’s. A quick hello on a morning walk. A conversation between strangers who discovered they both had a soft spot for rescue animals.

Those small moments can open the door to lasting human connections.

A 2015 study of residents in four U.S. and Australian cities found that pet owners were more likely than non-pet owners to get to know people in their neighborhood. Around 40% of pet owners reported receiving some form of social support from people they met through their pets.*

The research suggests that animals can help expand our circle of support, bringing people into our lives who might otherwise have remained strangers.

At The Human-Animal Alliance, we believe that ripple effect deserves attention. The bond we share with animals can reach beyond one relationship and help build a more connected community.

Tell us about someone you met because of an animal.

📸 Pasadena Humane

10/26/2026

Sometimes, healing begins with four hooves and the freedom to take your time.

A quiet moment beside a horse can be an invitation to slow down, notice your breathing, and connect without having to find the right words.

Research offers encouraging insights into these connections:

• A 2021 study of 63 veterans with PTSD found that approximately 51% experienced a clinically meaningful reduction in PTSD symptoms after eight sessions of equine-assisted therapy. Improvements were also observed at the three-month follow-up. The study had no control group, so the findings are promising rather than definitive.

• A separate randomized study involving 29 veterans found significant reductions in PTSD symptoms following six weeks of therapeutic horseback riding.

These findings point to possibilities worth exploring, with qualified professionals guiding the process and each person’s needs shaping the approach.

At the Human Animal Alliance, we celebrate a bond rooted in mutual respect—where opportunities for human healing go hand in hand with animal well-being.
High Hopes Therapeutic Riding
The Human-Animal Alliance (H-AA) is a nonprofit organization that deeply believes in the power and value of human-animal connection. Founded in 2022 by advocate and philanthropist Jackie Ducci, H-AA awards grants to charitable initiatives nationwide that recognize animals as essential partners in healing, connection, and purpose. Overhead expenses are privately funded, ensuring that one hundred percent of every donation directly supports impactful work

10/22/2026

Animals don’t check your résumé before deciding you’re worth spending time with.

They don’t care whether you answered every email, met your goals, or held everything together today. You can show up tired. Quiet. A little overwhelmed. There’s no polished version of yourself required.

Sometimes connection looks like a dog dropping a toy at your feet after a difficult day. A cat settling beside you while you sit with something you can’t quite put into words. A familiar animal greeting you with the same enthusiasm on a day when you feel anything but impressive.

Those moments matter. So does caring for the animals who share them with us—learning their signals, respecting their space, and giving them the patience they so often receive too little of.

At The Human-Animal Alliance, we celebrate a bond that makes room for being human, while asking us to be thoughtful toward another living being.

📸 Shepherd Youth Ranch
The Human-Animal Alliance (H-AA) is a nonprofit organization that deeply believes in the power and value of human-animal connection. Founded in 2022 by advocate and philanthropist Jackie Ducci, H-AA awards grants to charitable initiatives nationwide that recognize animals as essential partners in healing, connection, and purpose. Overhead expenses are privately funded, ensuring that one hundred percent of every donation directly supports impactful work.

10/19/2026

October is National ADHD Awareness Month, a reminder that support looks different for everyone.

For some people, ADHD can significantly affect daily functioning, from managing routines and shifting attention to navigating overwhelming environments. An individually trained psychiatric service dog may help by performing specific tasks tailored to that person’s disability.

Those tasks might include:

• Providing a trained cue to remind their handler to take medication.
• Retrieving a medication case.
• Using a gentle nose nudge to interrupt a specific behavior and redirect attention.
• Providing trained deep-pressure contact during episodes of overwhelm.

These tasks go beyond companionship. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, service dogs must be individually trained to perform work or tasks related to a person’s disability. Comfort from an animal’s presence alone does not meet that definition.

At The Human-Animal Alliance, we recognize the meaningful ways animals can support human well-being and independence. For someone with disabling ADHD, a carefully trained service dog may be one part of an individualized support plan.
📸 paws4people foundation
The Human-Animal Alliance (H-AA) is a nonprofit organization that deeply believes in the power and value of human-animal connection. Founded in 2022 by advocate and philanthropist Jackie Ducci, H-AA awards grants to charitable initiatives nationwide that recognize animals as essential partners in healing, connection, and purpose. Overhead expenses are privately funded, ensuring that one hundred percent of every donation directly supports impactful work.

10/15/2026

Research continues to show that the human-animal bond can create meaningful change in some unexpected places.

A study published in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research examined prison-based dog training programs and found that participation was associated with a small but statistically significant reduction in the risk of recidivism. Researchers also found that longer participation in the program was associated with an additional decrease in that risk.

Programs like these give participants opportunities to build responsibility, connection and purpose through caring for and working alongside animals—and they add to a growing body of research exploring the measurable impact of human-animal interaction.

At Human-Animal Alliance (H-AA), this is exactly why we are always looking for opportunities to fund programs that directly support and strengthen the human-animal bond. Whether that connection is helping someone navigate trauma, supporting a veteran, giving a child a safe space to heal, or creating opportunities for rehabilitation, we believe innovative programs rooted in the human-animal bond deserve the resources to grow.

Because when we invest in the connection between people and animals, the impact can reach far beyond either one.

Photo: AGoldPhoto Pet Photography

10/12/2026

International Human-Animal Bond Day is rapidly approaching!

Does your organization promote the human-animal bond through the work you do? We would love to hear from you. Visit our website to review our grant qualifications and see whether your organization could be a fit.

Pictured are our founder, Jackie Ducci, and grantee Nicole Navarro, founder of Pawsitive Beginnings in Key Largo, Florida. In 2024, we helped fund an onsite therapeutic office, The Human-Animal Alliance Healing Den, where counselors and their clients can hold private sessions in a unique fox sanctuary setting.

This is one example of how we help create opportunities for healing and connection through the human-animal bond.

10/08/2026

At Human-Animal Alliance, we believe the human-animal bond can play a meaningful role in supporting those who have served our country.

For veterans living with PTSD and other challenges following military service, a trained service dog can provide far more than companionship. Research funded by the National Institutes of Health found that adding a service dog to usual care was associated with reduced PTSD symptom severity, anxiety and depression, along with improvements in quality of life and psychosocial functioning.

More recent VA research has also demonstrated a physiological impact. In a 2026 study involving veterans with PTSD, the presence of a service dog was associated with smaller heart-rate and sweating responses to stressful sounds and helped veterans recover from those stress responses more quickly.

This is why Human-Animal Alliance supports programs that recognize animals as valuable partners in healing. Organizations like Paws of War help create these connections, bringing veterans and animals together in ways that can provide support, purpose and companionship.

The science continues to grow, but the message is powerful: the human-animal bond can make a measurable difference in the lives of those who have served.
📸 Paws of War
The Human-Animal Alliance (H-AA) is a nonprofit organization that deeply believes in the power and value of human-animal connection. Founded in 2022 by advocate and philanthropist Jackie Ducci, H-AA awards grants to charitable initiatives nationwide that recognize animals as essential partners in healing, connection, and purpose. Overhead expenses are privately funded, ensuring that one hundred percent of every donation directly supports impactful work.

10/05/2026

We talk a lot about animals changing lives.

But at Human Animal Alliance, we also want to understand how.

Researchers are studying the human-animal bond through cortisol levels, heart activity, oxytocin, behavior, social connection and even whether physiological responses between humans and animals can move together.

And there is still a lot we don’t know.

That’s important to say.

Good science isn’t about taking one beautiful interaction and declaring that animals can cure everything. It’s about asking questions, measuring outcomes and continuing to learn.

The evidence surrounding human-animal interaction continues to grow—and so does our understanding of just how complex this bond really is.

That’s the conversation we want Human Animal Alliance to be part of.
📸 Philly Goat Project
The Human-Animal Alliance (H-AA) is a nonprofit organization that deeply believes in the power and value of human-animal connection. Founded in 2022 by advocate and philanthropist Jackie Ducci, H-AA awards grants to charitable initiatives nationwide that recognize animals as essential partners in healing, connection, and purpose. Overhead expenses are privately funded, ensuring that one hundred percent of every donation directly supports impactful work.

Address

3361 Fairlane Farms Road, Suite 1X
Wellington, FL
33414

Telephone

+15614850445

Website

http://www.h-aa.org/, https://linktr.ee/human_animal_alliance

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