top of page

Toka’s Friends was founded by Tom and Kate Howd in 2017 as a 501(c)(3) public charity to provide service dogs to military veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  Tom, born and raised in Orono, Maine, is the son of a Navy veteran.  Kate (Hudner) born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, is the daughter of an Army veteran.  Although Tom and Kate never served in the military, they share a strong passion and commitment to give back to those who served their country through military service.

 

Why Toka’s Friends?

 

A quote from Tom Howd, co-founder:

 

“I feel very lucky for the life afforded to me.  I am beyond grateful for the freedoms and sense of security that come with living in this great country.  I understand the freedoms I enjoy come at a price to those who have served in our military.  Some paid the ultimate price and didn’t return home.  Some returned home but have invisible scars resulting from PTSD and TBI.  I am passionate about helping these men and women who sacrificed so much for their country, for us, for our way of life.”

 

Tom and Kate are grateful for the service of our military veterans and are passionate about doing what they can to improve the lives of those veterans diagnosed with PTSD and TBI.  Combining a desire to help military veterans and a love for dogs, they decided that helping veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI by providing them with trained service dogs would become their mission.

 

Our Values

 

As Toka’s Friends grows, makes decisions, works on long term plans, some things will never change.  These are our guiding values, the foundation upon which all our work is built. 

​

  • Integrity and honesty in everything we do.

  • Quality over quantity, resulting in the best trained service dogs in the country and an above-all-else focus on the success of our veteran + service dog teams.

  • Unwavering commitment to those who served in the military and need our assistance.

  • Create a healing community for the veterans we serve and a healthy, purposeful life for the dogs.

 

 

Our Vision

 

As Toka's Friends looks into the future we are focused on several things.

 

  • Become the gold standard for providing service dogs to veterans diagnosed with PTSD.  

  • Share best practices with other organizations doing similar work throughout the country.

  • Partner with clinicians and medical staff to collect quantitative and qualitative data demonstrating the efficacy of our approach and how service dogs help veterans with PTSD.

  • Partner with advocacy organizations to influence the Veterans Administration to financially subsidize service dogs for veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

  • Build a sustainable organization that can withstand the test of time through cultural, economic and political changes and create local communities for veterans and their service dogs.

​

To continue to read about Toka’s Friends and learn more about our team, click here.

FullSizeRender.jpg

Behind the Name...

Toka is the personal pet of our primary professional dog trainer, Mike Howd. Toka also stands for Toka's Friends founders Tom and Kate, who consider all of the veterans we serve to be their friends.  Additionally, Toka is a great role model for our service dogs in training, teaching them how to live in a house with people and other animals. So, we decided that since the Howd family becomes friends with the veterans and Toka becomes friends with all of the dogs that go through the program, it would be appropriate to name our organization Toka's Friends.

bottom of page