Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi all, 

Many of you may already know that RedRover provides grants (up to $20,000!) to help domestic violence (DV) shelters create on-site housing for the pets of survivors (https://redrover.org/relief/safe-housing-grants/).  As animal care organizations, you play a critical role in creating pet friendly housing by providing your expertise and support to DV shelters - we actually require that a DV shelter have an MOU with an animal care organization AND a vet.  This doesn't mean you're a big financial supporter but that you'll offer support with pets that aren't doing well at the DV shelter or offer insights with challenging pet behavior.  The sky is really the limit here - you can offer a little or a lot of support. 

What may be news to you is that just this year we opened up our Safe Housing grants to include "off-site" housing (https://redrover.org/relief/safe-housing-off-site-grants/).  This means that we can give an ACO up to $20,000 to create housing at your facility that is dedicated space for the pets of survivors staying at your partner DV shelter.  You can use this space for other purposes when not in use by the DV shelter but you'll need to free it up once it's needed for a survivor's pet(s). 

With up to 50% of DV survivors reporting that they delayed leaving their abusive situations out of concern for their pets, you play a critical role in helping survivors to escape with their pets.  Please consider reaching out to your local DV shelters to let them know about RedRover's Safe Housing grants - you'll build community partnerships and open yourself up to new donor streams! 

Don't hesitiate to reach out to me with questions or for more information.  Thanks!  

Thank you, this is wonderful 

Thank you!

Love, love, love this, Katie!! Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks Kim!

We have approached our local DV shelter, asking for a formal agreement.  We do help them, but generally whomever is the current person in charge calls at 8 p.m. at night asking for help.  And that person changes frequently.  So every time we try and establish rules, they have no idea that a previous person made this arrangement.  They are struggling financially.  Did close for several months.  Do you have a sample agreement you can share?  I would love to go to them with an agreement and perhaps that will make them comfortable about formalizing our assistance.

Thanks so much for providing that assistance - I know there are challenges but I'm glad to see that you're committed.  We require DV shelters to take a look at the Sheltering Animals & Families Together Start-up Manual (SAF-T) before applying for a grant.  It is more focused on pet friendly housing at a DV shelter but I think you might some of the sample forms helpful.  You can find it here: http://alliephillips.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SAF-T-Start-Up-Manual-2015.pdf

You might also find these guidelines on starting a "Safe Haven" program useful: http://www.vachss.com/guest_dispatches/ascione_safe_havens.pdf ;

There are a number of Safe Haven programs around the U.S. that might be able to offer some good insights: (directory: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/tips/safe_havens_directory.html)

I hope this information helps and please don't hesitate to send more questions my way or to give my contact information to folks at the DV shelter.   Thanks!

This is GREAT - we've been struggling trying to find that right answer to helping abuse victims in our community. Being a public shelter people assume we would be able to house them here but we are always full with some 400-500 pets on hand any given time. This Safe Housing opportunity might be the best thing for our community. Thanks for sharing!