We hope to see you on the next Maddie's Community Conversation on Monday, June 1, 2026 at 11am PT / 2pm ET for a conversation on "The Shift to Prevention" with @Bj Adkins, Founder of The Animal-Angels Foundation.
As a foster parent for a local shelter, BJ started to learn about the animal welfare system and saw great opportunity to prevent issues with pet owners upstream. So she founded the Animal-Angels Foundation and recently published an amazing resource guide that helps right the system to focus on prevention instead of reaction. Join us for what will be a full-court press leaning into prevention and solutions on a very broad scale. BJ is also developing a free software that links all animal welfare organizations and pet owners to match needs with resources.
This session is ideal for adoptions and foster staff & volunteers, behavior staff & volunteers, field services & animal control officers, marketing & communications staff, veterinary professionals, grant writers and fundraisers, marketing & communications staff, return to home & intake prevention staff, behavior staff and volunteers - but all are welcome!
🔑 Key Takeaways:
- Most pet surrender begins before the shelter. Families are usually out of options, not out of love. The prevention work has to happen upstream of the surrender call, not after it.
- Fragmented systems are the real bottleneck. Shelters, rescues, vets, landlords, and community orgs are all working the same families separately. A shared operational layer (like the Animal Welfare Resource Network (AWRN) https://animal-angelsfoundation.org/AWRN.html lets partners work the case together instead of duplicating each other or losing the family in the gap.
- Prevention is measurable, fundable, and scalable. Every prevented intake costs a fraction of an absorbed one. Once you have the data, the story shifts from ""rescue heroes"" to ""system builders,"" and that opens up municipal, sponsor, and grant funding that traditional shelter messaging cannot.
Don't forget! Maddie's Fund will be giving away up to $10,000 in grants each month! You can enter for a chance to win each time you attend a call or watch it on demand during the month by completing the monthly giveaway drawing entry form.
Register for Community Conversations hosted via Zoom.
🧠 Got Topic or Speaker Suggestions?
We want to hear your ideas! If there's a topic you're curious about or a speaker you'd love to hear from, please share your suggestions with us on our Community Conversations Suggestions thread.
#AccesstoCare#EducationandTraining-------------------------------------------
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Maddie's Pet Forum Admin
Maddie's Fund
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