Animal Welfare Professionals

Download this toolkit for storytelling ideas and graphics about pet support services.

How to Use this Document:

• Step 1: Download and share our graphic 

• Step 2: Tell stories that show this element at work

• Step 3: Put this element to work at your shelter

• Step 4: Keep learning with extra resources!

Element Description: 

Pet owners can access pet support services, including housing, medical and behavioral support, as well as food and supplies, to help keep the human-animal family together.

Download the graphics below and add your logo next to HASS

Pet Support Services

Can You Help Us Keep Families Together?

Storytelling Ideas that Fit this Element:

• When your shelter hosts events such as pet food pantries and vaccine clinics, collect stories (with permission) from those who were able to keep their family together by utilizing these resources AND those volunteers helping with it.
• Share stories about families who were able to stay together because of temporary housing options when they’ve experienced a disaster, domestic violence, eviction, or something else that may have affected their housing.
• Share stories of people who have temporarily fostered for someone so they could keep their family together. Highlight the connection between community members supporting each other.
• Capture the creation of care packages for families who need support through pet supplies. 
• Stories on how you’re transporting families to different support agencies.
• Share stories about connecting with the parts of your community that don’t speak English, this could be highlighting the addition of applications and website content in other languages, a staff member acting as a translator, etc. Dallas Animal Services hosts Spanish Saturdays in which a staff member shares important information about programs and adoptable animals in Spanish through social media!
• Stories about how your organization is transitioning to a case management approach to better address the needs of different families. See how KC Pet Project did this for Kit Kat!

Check out LifeLine Animal Project’s post about helping Ericka keep her cats with free vet care!

Check out how KC Pet Project shared temporary fostering as a way to keep families together!

Ways You Can Support the Implementation of This Element at Your Shelter:

• Prepare staff and volunteers to know what resources are available, and to think of solutions that keep families together first.
• Provide resources around tenant rights and ESA rights Check out this website with different information on ESA laws and rights and this ESA Fact sheet 
• Make sure resources are available in other languages commonly spoken in your community
• If possible, offer your social media posts and website in other languages as well. 
• Publicize events you are hosting to support your community such as drive thru pet food pantries and vaccine clinics. Even one picture and a thank you can make your community efforts familiar to new families in need. 
• Create a graphic for social media and/or a space on your website that shows people how, when, and where you are there for them. Here’s one graphic Dallas Animal Services used!
• If you partner with other social services or community programs, make that contact information readily accessible for staff to share and for families to find when they need it
• Keep all your resources on a handy resource page for easy finding! Check this one out from PACC on housing support
• Work with your behavior or clinic team to put together a resource guide for common behavior issues and care questions that can be made available on your website.
• Provide your onsite staff with a Point-Talk card to open the lines of communication with people who speak other languages. You can use this one: Point-Talk Adoption Card

These marketing and communications resources are still in the works! Have a new resource, design, story or idea to add to these toolkits? Email them to info@americanpetsalive.org.

For even more marketing and creative resources and ideas for shelters and animal welfare organizations, check out our friends at HeARTs Speak.