Animal Welfare Professionals

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  • 1.  Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-14-2023 12:04 PM

    Hey everybody! I'll be taking over a Foster Manager position soon and an interesting question arose on a Facebook group: what are some strategies you use to prevent overwork and burnout of your fosters, especially those 'superstars' who are skilled with neonates or medical cases? One of my thoughts was to implement a mandatory break between foster placements, like a specific period of rest required depending on level of need and eventual outcome (a few days for easy weaned, two weeks for neonates or complex medical, etc.). This would also be a great opportunity to be sure cleaning protocols are followed.

    What are your thoughts on this idea or what other strategies have you successfully implemented to retain great fosters and prevent overwork?


    #FosterPrograms
    #PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)

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    Leora Henry
    Transfer Coordinator
    Pet Network Humane Society
    Incline Village NV
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  • 2.  RE: Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-15-2023 08:46 AM

    Hello there!

    That is something I have experienced myself with our foster parents, and often time I will MAKE them take a break. Especially if they had a recent group that was a tough case (bottle babies that didn't make it sort of thing). I know some foster parents are used to chain fostering, but when they take multiple groups of bottle babies in a row, you know they are probably exhausted due to lack of sleep, so taking the initiative to say "you need a break for a week or two" is enough sometimes for people to 'reset' themselves. I'm a firm believer in that saying, "If you can't take care of yourself, you can't give proper care to the animals that need it." Having that communication and check-ins with foster parents can also help ensure that they are doing okay.



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    Shelby Bundy
    Foster Program Supervisor
    Longmont Humane Society
    Longmont, Co
    303-772-1232 x234
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  • 3.  RE: Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-15-2023 09:38 AM

    Hi Leora and congrats on your new position! I love that you're being proactive in keeping your foster caregivers' well-being in mind.

    @Erin Dams shared some of the things her organization does for its fosters in this "Guarding against foster burnout" post.  @Kelly Duer, do you know of any other resources for managing foster burnout? 



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    Kim Domerofski (she/her)
    Community Manager
    Maddie's Fund
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  • 4.  RE: Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-15-2023 10:18 AM

    Congrats Leora!!

     For sure, suggesting and making it easy for fosters to take breaks between hard cases is an excellent idea, but I'm a bit wary of making breaks mandatory. Faced with a break they don't have a choice about, I know a lot of frequent fosters who would simply foster for another organization in the meantime. As a behavior foster, I knew which dogs were deteriorating, and if I wasn't able to foster a dog I cared about, and they ended up not making it due to not having a foster, it would have stressed me out way more than having them in my home. 

    We do have some data that's relevant here. Our foster turnover research shows that one of the most important things to fosters is feeling like they have a voice. Other factors proven to improve foster caregiver retention include:

    • Improve communication
    • Offer more training opportunities
    • Having an effective process in place to market and get pets adopted from foster homes-- this is a huge one!! Nobody wants to have a foster in their home for months or more. Having a foster who isn't being actively marketed for adoption makes a foster feel like they've been forgotten and having a pet for a long period of time is heavy on the emotions.
    • Create opportunities for fosters to get to know and support one another-- this is maybe the most important. Having other fosters' support when faced with a challenging foster can make or break the entire experience. Watch this 2-minute video to see what I mean.
    • Offer more flexible fostering arrangements (short-term foster, etc.)
    • More opportunities for foster caregivers to provide input
    • Increase recognition/appreciation! Let them know how much they're helping, and if there's an opportunity to recognize them as experts, offer it! (making them an Expert in the FB group, asking them to review and provide feedback on the new foster manual, asking them to guest speak at a Zoom meeting to teach others how they get all their kittens adopted, etc.)



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    Kelly Duer
    Senior Community Solutions Initiative Specialist
    Maddie's Fund
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  • 5.  RE: Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-15-2023 05:49 PM

    These are amazing points, and I fully intend to introduce a mentor system to recognize the most capable and willing to engage fosters and to help reduce burnout on the coordinators. I am also considering adding some training about successful marketing of your own foster animals and setting up a social media group if there isn't one already. Thanks for your reply, I appreciate this info so much!



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    Leora Henry
    Transfer Coordinator
    Pet Network Humane Society
    Incline Village NV
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  • 6.  RE: Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-18-2023 11:44 AM

    Hi there.
    Our foster program has improved a lot in the last few years. 
    We have created a Facebook group page for just fosters. On this page they help each other out and can ask questions for us to answers. Sometimes our senior foster parent will answer as well. We also only limit foster to no more than 2 litter at a time. The foster community has been great helping one another out. When a foster is going on out of town, they use the page to see if someone can babysit their litter. 

    This year we have create a group on BAND App so that fosters can schedule their own vaccine, spay/neuter, and any vet appointment needed. 
    its still new to us but starting to be more efficient with it. 



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    Amelia Pham
    Assistant Manager
    WAGS Pet Adoption
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  • 7.  RE: Foster Strategies

    Posted 06-21-2023 04:13 PM

    we have our main FB page and then our volunteer page where fosters can post things such as help with pet sitting their dog when they leave on vacation,  photo's of their foster, etc and we have a school page where you can post a training issue and other vol can answer or a trainer can answer and we have a lounge page just for vol to post whatever they want, comics, photo's, dogs in need, anything not related to their foster dog



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    Sandy Cole
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