Animal Welfare Professionals

Our rescue received a small grant to start up a program for youth who are interested in careers in animal welfare.  I'm looking for similar programs we can use as a template for designing ours.  The resources I'm finding are mostly geared to elementary-age kids (our participants will be mostly ages 16-18 and definitely not younger than high school) and focus on safety around animals and basic animal care.  That will be an initial component of our program, but the goal is to involve the kids in actual rescue & shelter work, so they can see if a career working with animals is right for them and develop relevant knowledge and skills for future community and professional leaders in the field.  I'd appreciate any references to similar existing programs that we can learn from.  Thanks in advance!

#EducationandTraining

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Julie Hall
Oracle Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation Inc
AZ
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For those with humane education programs that focus on teen audience, The Latham Foundation's annual grant program is awarding grants this year to teen focused humane education efforts: https://www.latham.org/grants/general-information/

Stacey Zeitlin

VP, The Latham Foundation

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Stacey Zeitlin
San Diego Humane Society
San Diego CA
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Hey Julie!

We have a summer camp for students interested in careers with animals. It started with doing 1 week a summer and has grown to being 9 weeks (different kids every week) and including multiple age groups! Here's our camp basics on our site: https://rvspca.org/resources-education/humane-education/summer-camp/

We have some lessons here at the shelter and then do field trips for others. If field trips aren't an option, we've done some great lessons onsite. We run lessons about Petsitting for Teens, Introduction to Birding (including dissecting owl pellets!), Trap-Neuter-and-Return. 

Some special guest speakers we've had include:

• Learning about dog training (dog trainer visited)
• Service Dogs vs Therapy Dogs vs ESAs (service dog trainer visited),
• Beekeeping (we actually had a local beekeeper come in and bring a bunch of supplies!), etc.
• We also do mock surgery with stuffed animals after working with a veterinarian and learning to do sutures. 
• Local wildlife center visited with their animal ambassadors
• Animal Care Officers visited

I'm happy to send you ANY of our lesson plans you might be interested in. I know how hard it is to get things started form scratch! 

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Erin Dams
Community Relations Coordinator
Roanoke Valley SPCA
Roanoke VA
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Julie,

We have multiple programs for kids and teens at Animal Friends!  We have a wonderful seasonal/summer camp program for kids/teens aged 6-18.  We also have a few basic school programs but are currently developing/planning on rolling out an additional 6 classroom programs (based on grade level and aligned with state standards) in 2026.  I'd love to talk with you or connect you with our Humane Educator.  You can email me at PPaich-Caraway@ThinkingOutsideTheCage.org if you'd like to connect!

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Penny Paich-Caraway
Community Programs Manager
Animal Friends
PA
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