Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello everyone.  I hope this finds everyone well today.  

Forgive me ahead of time if there is already a thread on this (please do send me the previous discussion if there has been one), but here are my question(s) for municipal shelters regarding volunteers. 

• At what age does your organization allow volunteers to volunteer?  
• Are parents required to be on premises assisting the teen volunteers and if so, what is the age ranges? For example: parents are required to be with the volunteers if the volunteers are between the ages of 13 - 15.
• For community service workers (court mandated hours), what offenses other than felonies does your organization not allow:
• Do you have any time minimum or maximum on your volunteers?  For example:  we have a teen court judge that enforces no more than 8 hours for minors - which I think is fair but I need to research if that is a statue somewhere.

For reference, I am in Texas and I recognize that each state will have its own regulation, but it would be nice to see what everyone is doing.  Again, if this has been discussed previously, I would love to find that discussion.

Take care everyone and be safe.

#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)

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Chun Mezger
Animal Services Officer
North Richland Hills Animal Adoption & Rescue
TX
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Hi Chun, 

Great questions! 

Here's a "Kids and Volunteers" discussion thread that may help. The thread is 5 years old and you've asked some pretty specific questions so I hope our forum members are able to help you. 

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Kim Domerofski (she/her)
Community Manager
Maddie's Fund
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Thank you for sending this out.

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Chun Mezger
Animal Services Officer
North Richland Hills Animal Adoption & Rescue
TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-13-2024 01:45 PM
From: Kim Domerofski (She/Her)
Subject: Ages and parental presence of volunteers

Hi Chun, 

Great questions! 

Here's a "Kids and Volunteers" discussion thread that may help. The thread is 5 years old and you've asked some pretty specific questions so I hope our forum members are able to help you. 

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Kim Domerofski (she/her)
Community Manager
Maddie's Fund
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Hi Chun,

We have been including youth as young as 8 years of age for nearly 16 years now. 35% of our volunteers are under the age of 18 and I am a HUGE proponent of allowing youth to volunteer at our shelter. Youth volunteers can volunteer at our shelter with our pets, help at fundraising events, work in our thrift store, and foster (as long as a parent or guardian is taking on the liability and responsibility of the foster pet(s).  

Here are the answers to your questions:

• At what age does your organization allow volunteers to volunteer?   - As young as 8 years of age
• Are parents required to be on premises assisting the teen volunteers and if so, what is the age ranges? For example: parents are required to be with the volunteers if the volunteers are between the ages of 13 - 15. - A parent or guardian must be with the child if they are between the ages of 8-15 years of age. Once they are 16 or 17 years of age they can volunteer on their own, with a volunteer app signed by their parent. Certain conditions apply, meaning, we chose the animals anyone under 18 years of age can handle. Everyone is required to go through training and have a volunteer application on file. 
• For community service workers (court mandated hours), what offenses other than felonies does your organization not allow: - We do allow CS volunteers to volunteer at the shelter helping to clean and do odds and ends around the facility.  At the shelter they must be 18 years or older and pass a background (this is part of the requirements we must follow with our contract with the municipal shelter we share the building with). If they are minors and hours are not for abuse or theft, they can also satisfy their hours at our thrift store and we will allow 16 and 17-year-olds to do that as well. 
• Do you have any time minimum or maximum on your volunteers?  For example:  we have a teen court judge that enforces no more than 8 hours for minors - which I think is fair but I need to research if that is a statue somewhere. - We do not have a max. We do ask that volunteers give us a min of 2hrs a month though. 
  
  

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions. 

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Erin Ellis
Community Engagement Director
Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe

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Foster Program & Volunteer Management Specialist
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Thank you Erin for all the great information.  We too are all for promoting community involvement even with our younger citizens.  Families and teachers have shared with us the benefits of volunteering have helped.

As with every entity but usually more with municipalities, every so often we conduct polls to see what everyone else in our industry is doing.  With this information we then will take a look at our program to see if there are any enhancements needed or wanted.  Currently we allow teens between the age of 13 - 15 are reguired to have a parent on premises with them to volunteer, then at 16 the volunteers can come by themselves.  We allow court ordered 'volunteers' to help out as long as their charge was a not a felony or drug related and the age resrictions applies.

Thank you for everyone's time.

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Chun Mezger
Animal Services Officer
North Richland Hills Animal Adoption & Rescue
TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-13-2024 01:49 PM
From: ERIN ELLIS
Subject: Ages and parental presence of volunteers

Hi Chun,

We have been including youth as young as 8 years of age for nearly 16 years now. 35% of our volunteers are under the age of 18 and I am a HUGE proponent of allowing youth to volunteer at our shelter. Youth volunteers can volunteer at our shelter with our pets, help at fundraising events, work in our thrift store, and foster (as long as a parent or guardian is taking on the liability and responsibility of the foster pet(s).  

Here are the answers to your questions:

• At what age does your organization allow volunteers to volunteer?   - As young as 8 years of age
• Are parents required to be on premises assisting the teen volunteers and if so, what is the age ranges? For example: parents are required to be with the volunteers if the volunteers are between the ages of 13 - 15. - A parent or guardian must be with the child if they are between the ages of 8-15 years of age. Once they are 16 or 17 years of age they can volunteer on their own, with a volunteer app signed by their parent. Certain conditions apply, meaning, we chose the animals anyone under 18 years of age can handle. Everyone is required to go through training and have a volunteer application on file. 
• For community service workers (court mandated hours), what offenses other than felonies does your organization not allow: - We do allow CS volunteers to volunteer at the shelter helping to clean and do odds and ends around the facility.  At the shelter they must be 18 years or older and pass a background (this is part of the requirements we must follow with our contract with the municipal shelter we share the building with). If they are minors and hours are not for abuse or theft, they can also satisfy their hours at our thrift store and we will allow 16 and 17-year-olds to do that as well. 
• Do you have any time minimum or maximum on your volunteers?  For example:  we have a teen court judge that enforces no more than 8 hours for minors - which I think is fair but I need to research if that is a statue somewhere. - We do not have a max. We do ask that volunteers give us a min of 2hrs a month though. 
  
  

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions. 

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Erin Ellis
Community Engagement Director
Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe

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Foster Program & Volunteer Management Specialist
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Note: My shelter is private, not municipal. I'm not sure if that affects your questions but want to mention it :)

• At what age does your organization allow volunteers to volunteer?   - 10 years old to 15 years old with an adult. 16+ years old can volunteer on their own. We do have a reading to cats program for children under 10 years old so they can be included!
• Are parents required to be on premises assisting the teen volunteers and if so, what is the age ranges? For example: parents are required to be with the volunteers if the volunteers are between the ages of 13 - 15. - An approved adult must be with children 10-15 years old. It doesn't not have to be parent as long as parent signs off (we have a few older siblings and grandparents that come with younger kids). We allow up to 2 children with one adult. The adult is required to be the one holding a leash for dog walking, etc. 
• For community service workers (court mandated hours), what offenses other than felonies does your organization not allow: We do not typically take Court-mandated or lawyer-recommended volunteers. I have made exceptions before for current volunteers I already know and occasional special skills. We can't work with drug-related charges since we have a vet clinic onsite with medications, etc. 
• Do you have any time minimum or maximum on your volunteers? We ask our volunteers to donate 4 hours per month as their minimum. No maximum. Volunteers are deactivated if they are inactive for 6 months, so it's okay if they don't hit 4 hours every month.

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Erin Dams
Community Relations Coordinator
Roanoke Valley SPCA
Roanoke VA
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Hi there - Our volunteer program allows for 8 years old and up to become volunteers.  Ages 8 - 15 are required to be with an adult volunteer at all times, including their orientation. Ages 16-17 are allowed to volunteer on their own, but require a parent/guardian to fill out all of the waivers and consent.  As for court ordered community service, we are not concerned whether it is a misdemeanor or felony, but rather the nature of the crime.  We do not allow for any violent crime (domestic abuse, assault, child abuse, animal abuse etc) or any theft type crime (larceny, retail fraud, robbery, burglary, uttering/publishing etc). We do not have any maximum or minimum volunteer requirements. If a volunteer has not been to the shelter for any volunteering in one year, they will become inactive in the computer and will have to complete a new orientation in order to be reinstated. 

It's very interesting to see how differently (and similarly) we all do things :)

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Lindsay Packard
Volunteer Outreach Coordinator
Lenawee Humane Society
MI
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• At what age does your organization allow volunteers to volunteer?  12-15 yrs with a parent or guardian over 18
• For community service workers (court mandated hours), what offenses other than felonies does your organization not allow:  We also do not care whether it is a felony or misdemeanor, it just cannot be any type of domestic violence/animal abuse. Community Service, whether court-ordered or academic, are only assigned to volunteer in our Kitchen/Laundry department. Primarily because they only need to complete so many hours, and for animal care, like dog walking, we require a recurring shift.  We also only allow two missed shifts; after that, they are removed from the schedule, emailed the current hours they volunteered, and are made inactive. If they were reliable, and would like to continue volunteering, we will then assign them to a  specific training orientation (i.e. dog team, cat team, medical)
• Do you have any time minimum or maximum on your volunteers? We ask for a commitment of at least one 2-hour shift per week for dog walking and customer service, but for those that cannot commit to a weekly recurring shift, they can be a cat socializer. The shifts are still 2-hours, but they can look in the Better Impact app, see what shifts are available that day or week, and just plug themselves in where/when they want.  

For reference, we are in CA and have 535 volunteers. 

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Bonny Birch
Volunteer Specialist
Palm Springs Animal Shelter
CA
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• At what age does your organization allow volunteers to volunteer?  To be a regular volunteer on site 13 years old
  • We have noticed younger members of the community want to be involved but our shelter is limited on space and we must ensure everyone's safety, because of this we have implemented other volunteer opportunities. We have "Fetch Some Fun" where as long as one person in the group is over 18 y/o they can take a dog out for a few hours around town. (Only dogs that would thrive in this environment get sent on fieldtrips) We also started having a "Volunteer Service Day"  where all ages are welcome to come and help prep enrichment activities for the animals. This has been extremely popular at our shelter and a great way to draw in new volunteers, fosters, and adopters as it is less structured than filling out an application and attending orientation.  
• Are parents required to be on premises assisting the teen volunteers and if so, what is the age ranges?  Parent/Guardian are required to be with the volunteers if the volunteers are between the ages of 13 - 15. 16+ must have a liability waiver signed by a parent
• For community service workers (court mandated hours), what offenses other than felonies does your organization not allow: We allow Court Ordered Community Service for Non-Violent offences only
• Do you have any time minimum or maximum on your volunteers?  We ask for at least 2 hours a week and have no maximum. (However we do not enforce this, it is simply a guide not a requirement) 6 months of inactivity deactivates their account. 

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Katelynn Bernth
Volunteer Coordinator
Michiana Humane Society
IN
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