We Foster Challenge

September 14, 2021

One Tail at a Time, based in Chicago, IL, was in a tough spot. Their shelter partners were quickly filling to capacity and were asking for help. At the same time, they were experiencing a drop in new fosters and foster placements due to vacations, returning to work and other factors. “With scheduled transports and our commitment to our local animal care and control, it was not an option for us to stop or severely slow down our intake and we needed to act,” says Foster Program Manager, Shannon Wilson. 

They decided to hold a foster open house. “Our foster open house was pieced together pretty much within a week,” Wilson tells us. “We had over 120 guests come through our doors in a 5–hour window, with over 75 new foster applicants onboarded and many new existing foster families leaving with a dog or a cat. We had 18 animals available for fostering on-site that day, and all went home to a foster. We also were able to connect with homes that may be better candidates for our pets with more behavioral or medical needs, and were able to recruit quite a few homes with fenced yards, no resident pets, etc.”  

How did they do it and during a pandemic, no less? They used these five strategies...

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