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
Original Message:
Sent: 03-13-2024 01:32 PM
From: Chun Mezger
Subject: Ages and parental presence of volunteers
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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