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April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

  • 1.  April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-07-2022 10:59 AM

    The theme for this month's resource drive is FOSTER CARE!

    Q:  What's one of the best ways to free up space in your shelter?
    Q:  Best way to find out what a dog or cat will be like in a home?
    Q:  Best way to keep anxiety and stress levels low for pets in our care?

    A:      FOSTER CARE!    (LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!)

    cat in bed/dog with toy


    You can participate in 2 ways:
    1.  Upload/Share your favorite Foster Care Resources* (See Pro-tips for sharing resources at the bottom of this post)
    2.  Reply with a request for a specific Foster Care Resource YOU need


    What kind of Foster Care resources can you share? What kind of Foster Care resources do you need? 
    The sky's the limit! Here are some ideas: 

    • short-term, emergency, field trip fostering program SOPs & related forms
    • starting a foster care program/foster care program SOPs
    • foster care coordinator/manager job descriptions
    • foster caregiver manuals
    • foster marketing materials:  foster recruitment, social media strategies


    🤑
    Participation = Your Entry To Win 🤑

    Everyone who uploads a file, shares a resource on this thread or replies with a successful foster technique during the month of April will be entered to win a $50 gift card to Amazon, Petco or PetSmart (winner's choice).  Start sharing now!


    View all of the Foster Care Resources in this Library folder


    *Pro-Tips for sharing resources: 

    • Use the "Upload File" button when replying to this thread to attach a file. We encourage you to attach the file versus hyperlinking to the file whenever possible. Files that are attached to discussion threads are automatically added to the Maddie's Pet Forum Resource Library so attaching helps make the resource searchable and improves accessibility within the forum.
    • Yes, you can share resources that your organization did not create. Sharing is caring and this applies to resources too! Make sure the creator allows the resource to be shared publicly and be sure to give credit to the creator or source organization.


    #FosterPrograms

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    Charlotte Otero
    Community Strategist at Maddie's Fund
    she/her
    ------------------------------



  • 2.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-07-2022 03:10 PM
      |   view attached
    Beginner's Guide to Whelping Puppies - The birth of a litter can seem daunting, especially for first timers. This 12 page step-by-step guide will walk fosters through:

    1. How to Prepare for Whelping (Birth)
    2. How to Predict When Whelping Will Occur
    3. What to Expect During Whelping
    4. When to Intervene: Non-Emergencies
    5. When to Call for Help: Emergencies


    ------------------------------
    Diane Zahorodny
    World Ready Pets
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 3.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-08-2022 06:24 AM
    We are a solely foster based rescue and have no brick and mortar. We obviously run into issues where the need is higher than what we can accommodate for, but we make it work in most instances. 
    We may only have a small amount of fosters, but the wonderful thing is, we have what I call areas of foster champions! We have areas of specific need including: bottle kittens, 2nd stage kittens (3+wks to adoption age ready), juveniles, adults and one with no age preference. This helps tremendously on knowing what we're looking at for intake and who best to place them with! 
    We face the same issue so many others are as well in the need of more fosters!
    Being in a more rural area and our rescue being one of the only equipped to handle and provide for bottle babies,  we get contacted by several surrounding humane Societies with bottle babies which we never say no to intaking.
    I'm a board member and my area of focus is social media relations. I do something called foster Fridays where I ask for fosters, give info and use graphics to make it pop out! We're also going to continue with our Facebook ad volunteer job search and am going to boost the post in order to reach the target audience of those who aren't followers on our Facebook page and honestly may have never heard of us. Using this feature, we've been able to recruit 2 active fosters!
    I also made up a handful of "interview" questions for some of our fosters to answer to showcase that fostering felines works in a wide variety of home settings like those with other felines, dogs or children in the home. I felt like this would show the public that hey we can foster, so can you!
    We do foster to adopt, especially with Kittens to give the foster the option of adopting before they're made available to the public. It must work cause I've failed at this 3 times myself! We've also had 12 other cats and kittens be adopted by their fosters!
    If we're able to assist in temporary fostering for someone who wants to keep their pet, but has to do something like a 90 day treatment and we're able to accommodate them, we definitely do so which helps to keep the public engaged and shows that our rescue helps in keeping pets with their humans. 
    Last fall we even assisted a hometown hero who was active duty overseas who rescued a mama(Saving Sgt. Whiskers and her babies) and her 2 babies and worked with multiple agencies globally to get them stateside and begin an intense socialization process even though we tend not to take in semi to feral kitties because we just don't have the room or fosters who excel at this, but we made it work! 
    We also have an individual chat group for each foster which helps to keep open communication and that they feel supported the entire length of their current fosters. 
    Not only does the communication piece help retain fosters, giving them a BREAK in between all adopted and the next call IF they want/ need one is huge in preventing burnout!! 
    From personal experience as I'm an active foster as well being a bottle baby up to adoption age ready kittens champion for our rescue, I had 15 kittens come through my home within a 4 month span including 2 litters of bottle kittens at the same time! The other board members convinced me that I needed a break afterwards and although I was reluctant at first, I quickly realized just how right they were! I had begun losing that passion at fostering so we definitely make sure if our fosters are showing foster fatigue to give them that much needed break no matter how much we may need them at that time! 
    We be sure to thank our fosters at least once weekly because without them we honestly couldn't save as many lives as we do and we certainly don't take that lightly or for granted!

    ------------------------------
    Tracy Hanson
    Ellie's Legacy Pet Rescue
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  • 4.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-08-2022 06:36 AM
    Hopefully this is able to be viewed as it's screen shots, if not feel free to reach out to me and I can email you them if you're interested!

    ------------------------------
    Tracy Hanson
    Ellie's Legacy Pet Rescue
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-11-2022 11:43 AM

    Thanks for sharing this, Tracy! 

    Here's the link to the American Pets Alive blog post you referenced in case anyone has difficulty reading your screenshots: 

    American Pets Alive blog post:  "Open Fostering: It's Time to Make Fostering Inclusive" 



    ------------------------------
    Kim Domerofski (she/her)
    Community Manager
    Maddie's Fund
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-08-2022 10:09 AM
      |   view attached

    Why Urgent Care?

    Animals are an important part of our lives. They are our best friends, teammates, confidants and companions. They get us moving when we don't feel like moving, help us smile when we don't feel like smiling. They are there for us, we for them, and the bond we share creates memories that last a lifetime.  

    For many responsible, loving pet owners, this bond is threatened by larger systemic challenges. Intersecting oppressions and discriminations that impact marginalized populations, create economic disparities which lead to further barriers down the road. These issues can have direct impacts on pet owners' access to, and ability to engage with, pet care.  

    No one, no matter their circumstances, should be denied the joy and comfort that comes from the human-animal bond. 

    Urgent Care offers an alternative to surrender, keeping people and their pets together, and furthering the human-animal bond in the community.  

    Resources to Support other Animal Welfare Agencies

    Toronto Humane Society is committed to championing and supporting the Human-Animal Bond, and supporting our community of colleagues in animal welfare to do the same. It is through our desire to help strengthen the industry that our team of experts created the Urgent Care Resource Manual to help guide and support like-minded agencies in starting and operating their own Temporary Care Fostering Programs.  



    ------------------------------
    Karen Ward
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 7.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-08-2022 11:46 AM
    Hi there! 

    I have been the foster coordinator at a local donation driven humane society for the past 2 years. We have revamped the program immensely, and we are always looking for new ideas! We have two manuals completed, our Canine and Feline manuals. We also have our emergency protocol sheet. Excited to learn from other shelters!

    ------------------------------
    Lindsey Frontjes
    Human Society of West Michigan
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  • 8.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-12-2022 07:28 AM
    I'm attaching some of our resources. One is our foster handbook that we give out to all new fosters and includes everything foster related for our organization.

    ------------------------------
    Erin Ellis
    Community Engagement Director
    Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe

    ---------
    Foster Program & Volunteer Management Specialist
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    HSTT Foster Handbook.pdf   392 KB 1 version
    pdf
    Foster Pet Guidelines.pdf   492 KB 1 version


  • 9.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-13-2022 07:11 AM
    Just some templates I made up in how our foster program works as well as a fosters pamphlet I created that we have set out at all of our events! Hope these ideas can help someone! I've found the more eye popping the graphics used are the more interaction we get from our over 4k in Facebook followers!

    ------------------------------
    Tracy Hanson
    Ellie's Legacy Pet Rescue
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-25-2022 08:36 AM
    Here are some templates I've created to find fosters. The one that says who's in foster care and who's been adopted so far this year really got a lot of attention and traffic views from our followers. 
    I may have shared some of these before, I can't remember...
    The pamphlet discusses our mission and our need for fosters. We put the out at any of our events we have and will be putting some at businesses where our donation jars are located a well. 
    We're in a smaller rural community so we're trying to expand our radius in order to get more fosters lined up.

    ------------------------------
    Tracy Hanson
    Ellie's Legacy Pet Rescue
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-26-2022 12:52 PM
      |   view attached
    Like a first grader entering a classroom for the first time, any dog entering a new location for the first time wants and needs to know:
         - what is expected of him;
         - where he can go;
         - who he can trust;
         - who he should follow, and
         - what he should do, to get his needs met.

    When what we do answers these questions for a dog in the first 30  minutes that we're together, the dog is set up for success, as opposed to an element of stress. Because we've always thought that seeing new locations through the eyes of our dogs was important, we put together the attached video for new foster homes and new adopters. Feel free to share it with others.

    ------------------------------
    Lynne Swanson
    Safe Harbor Farm K9
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-26-2022 01:08 PM
      |   view attached
    Since introducing dogs to one another is often part of the new foster home experience, another video from our shelter's YT series that you might find helpful is this one.

    Lots of other videos, including the entire 3-hour "Communicating With Canines" seminar I often do for conferences, can be found on the 'givesmiles.us' YouTube channel. Free for everyone, and very good for staff, volunteer, foster home and new adopter training. Feel free to share it with others.

    ------------------------------
    Lynne Swanson
    Safe Harbor Farm K9
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 04-28-2022 01:18 PM
    For anyone running a field trip program, do you have a separate form that is filled out or a list of rules with a signature book acknowledging that the rules have been read?  If anyone has a copy of their forms or list of rules, that would be appreciated.

    ------------------------------
    Kelly Patterson
    Special Pals
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  • 14.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 05-04-2022 12:54 PM
    Thanks to everyone who participated in the April Resource drive! We've organized the fostering resources members shared into several folders in our resource library to make them easier for you to find:
    Folders for Foster, Foster Manuals: Cat OR Dog, Foster Manuals: Dog and Foster Manuals: Cat


    And the random winner of the $50 gift card is @Lynne Swanson! Thanks for sharing Safe Harbor Farm K9's foster related videos!


    ------------------------------
    Charlotte Otero
    Community Strategist at Maddie's Fund
    she/her
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: April 2022 Resource Drive: Foster Care

    Posted 06-05-2022 01:58 PM
    Creating an Elite Foster Team to handle animals with behavioral and medical needs! 

    https://rescueallies.com/2022/05/13/building-an-elite-foster-team/

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    Kenzie Whalen-Dunn
    Rescue Inc
    ------------------------------