Animal Welfare Professionals

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your foster program?   Are we all experiencing the same struggles?  Does anyone have ideas for how to make things better and more efficient?

As the foster coordinator, here are the struggles I see:

• How do you keep from always asking your same few standby fosters to take animals so that you don't risk burning them out?
  • We have a robust list of fosters but usually only get a handful of replies to our foster pleas and end up having to reach out individually to our trusty "go-tos" for the "more difficult" cases like puppies or sick animals.
• How do you manage foster communication and the emergency phone?
  • This has been asked before but I'm wondering if there are any new ideas since the last post in 2022.
• How do you manage burnout for your foster team?
  • Also a repeat discussion, but maybe we've evolved and come up with new ideas for keeping our programs thriving and our team members engaged.

#FosterPrograms

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Nicole Hilton
Foster & Shelter Volunteer Coordinator
Humane Society of Truckee Tahoe
Truckee, California
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Hello! Here's some answers to your questions. I was the Foster Program Supervisor for my work before being promoted to Shelter Manager of Programs, so I've definitely delved DEEP into this area (and yet still find myself constantly learning new things, it's wonderful).

• How do you keep from always asking your same few standby fosters to take animals so that you don't risk burning them out?
  • In the midst of kitten season, we sometimes have a waitlist that we go off of. So, if we know that Foster A has taken 4 of the last 10 opportunities, we'd respond by saying something along the lines of: 'we'll keep you as the back-up for now, but we'd like to try letting some of our newer fosters take this group.' It will also depend on the 'urgency' of the foster group or animal in question (i.e critical care vs easy weight gain foster).
• How do you manage foster communication and the emergency phone?
  • We use email, foster facebook group, and our Trello board. Depending on how large our foster base grows though, we may consider using constant contact, which is what our development team uses for mass messages. We've run into a single-issue last year, where our foster coordinator wasn't able to send emails because an adoption update email was marked as 'spam.' Our emergency line, we use google voice, and it will typically get 'passed' to a certain person for a day or so to answer if needed. We've tried so many graphics and emails about certain emergency scenarios and have found that the inexperienced foster people like having the option to call in case their 'issue' doesn't necessarily align with the graphics description of an 'emergency.'
• How do you manage burnout for your foster team?
  • Making sure they prioritize their mental health above all else, staff and volunteers alike. If we know a foster parent took bottle babies every time they came up and were asked, we'll give them a 'forced break' of at least a week so they can reset their body and get some rest. And we give them the support as needed, if they lose a foster animal, we'll have their back and send them various articles about how to deal with foster animal grief etc etc.

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Shelby Stromberger
Shelter Manager- Programs
Longmont Humane Society
303-772-1232 x 265
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Hello! I am the foster coordinator for YVAS in Billings, MT and have been in this position since October 2022. 

Here are my responses to your question:

• How do you keep from always asking your same few standby fosters to take animals so that you don't risk burning them out?
  • Honesty is the main goal I have for communication with my fosters. I started counting the amount of foster animals going to fosters and the days they had them. This helped show me who I used the most and who I could reach out to more for help. I ask all my fosters to be upfront with me and tell me if they need a break. This is both for their mental health and the health of the animals. Some fosters thrive going back to back, with a break for deep cleaning and others need a few week break in-between. I have to trust that they will tell me what their limit is and I have to reach out to more people to work on growing our foster base. 
• How do you manage foster communication and the emergency phone?
  • We have a foster phone that is a dedicated line and I carry with me throughout the day. The phone is checked from 8am to 7pm daily. Then we have a foster facebook page that is available 24 hours a day if fosters have questions. We just partnered with a local emergency vet who will take foster drop off if fosters are crashing. So no one is on call 24 hrs a day but we have different resources for fosters so they feel supported and they are not alone. So far that has worked really well for us. We have only had to use the emergency euthanasia service about 3 times last year and we sent out 640 animals to foster. 
• How do you manage burnout for your foster team?
  • Honest communication. I also have to take vacations or breaks as it can be mentally challenging to separate yourself from the loss. We have support groups for our fosters,  monthly get togethers, I check in with them after hard cases and then also have check ins with my boss to help keep my head straight. I am looking into mental first aid classes to help separate myself from my fosters grief. Burnout is a challenge but I think communication and being honest about what we can mentally handle has made a big difference and built trust with our organization. 

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Katie Pauli
Foster Coordinator
Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter
MT
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