We’ve been offering webinars galore in 2023. They’re on so many of the critical topics relating to the work at hand of keeping families together, and pets alive, while focusing on the humans who are at the very heart of animal welfare.
Here are five you don’t want to miss—and stay tuned for more, more, more! We’ve got some incredible, super inspiring, and very actionable webinars planned for the coming months.
Crisis Sheltering for Pets: Keeping People and Pets Together
There are times when someone can’t take care of their pet on a temporary basis, because of a medical emergency, loss of housing, or another short-term crisis. The traditional sheltering response is to permanently separate the pet from their owner. But more and more organizations are providing crisis sheltering instead—boarding the pet at the shelter, or placing them in a foster home, for a limited amount of time.
How does crisis sheltering work, and how can you get started? We gathered experts for a panel discussion that will leave you inspired as they discuss what crisis sheltering looks like in each of their organizations, challenges they’ve overcome, and their best tips for getting started.
Tune into this conversation with Shoshana Mostoller, Community Engagement Manager for Chesapeake Humane Society; Jodi Polanski, Founder and Executive Director of Lost Our Home Pet Rescue; Kristina Pulsipher, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Ruff Haven Crisis Sheltering; Andy Bond, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of BestyBnB. Our moderator is Vincent Medley, Director of Human Animal Support Services.
Supporting Both Ends of the Leash: What Community Support Looks Like in a HASS Pilot Shelter
We know that people and pets need support to stay together through challenging times—but how can you identify the support your community needs and how your organization can facilitate it? That’s what this webinar is all about!
Amanda Gatten, KC Pet Project’s Director of Community Programs, shares what a comprehensive, flexible, effective community support program looks like at a HASS pilot shelter—with ideas and tips for other organizations to steal.
We also hear from Eliza Torres, Education and Implementation Manager for HASS, and Jamie Case, Director for the ASPCA’s Northern Tier Shelter Initiative and former strategist for pets.findhelp.com. This dynamic duo discusses how pets.findhelp.com can further an organization’s goal of getting more support to the people and pets in your community.
Pawsitively Thriving: Strategies for Work-Life Balance in Animal Welfare
Work-life balance is never easy for people who work in animal sheltering, and increased lengths of stay and high staff turnover have only made the job more challenging. As you support the people and pets in your community, caring for yourself and your teams can feel like a secondary goal.
Listen or watch this webinar recording featuring Lindsay Hamrick, Director of Shelter Outreach & Engagement with the Humane Society of the United States, to learn why work-life balance can be difficult in animal welfare and practical tips for organizations and individuals to identify barriers to achieving better balance.
You’ll learn strategies to create boundaries between their professional and personal lives, affording time for individualized self-care and wellness while still meeting the needs of the mission.
Top Insights from 2022 on the H in HASS
When people and pets are separated, it often comes down to human issues such as financial struggles, eviction, job loss, or health issues. In the Human Animal Support Services project and at Austin Pets Alive!, we are working to create an animal welfare system that helps solve these root problems and better supports pets and the people who love them.
Check out this webinar recording to learn the insights we gained about people and pets in 2022, and to hear our panelists discuss the intersection of human struggles, human services, and animal services—and how that relates to the animal welfare movement and HASS.
The panelists are Dr. Ellen Jefferson, President and CEO of Austin Pets Alive!; Vincent Medley, Director of Human Animal Support Services; Diaz Dixon, Advisor for External Affairs and Partnerships for the HASS project; and Alexis Telfair-Garcia, Social Work Program Development Manager at Austin Pets Alive!.
The H in HASS: Q&A
When people experience a crisis, it often leads to being separated from the pets they love. The Human Animal Support Services project is a collective of animal welfare organizations working to create a system to better support pets and their people.
In this live webinar, HASS leaders come together to continue the discussion of human services, animal services, and, overall, the H in HASS. Dr. Ellen Jefferson, President and CEO of Austin Pets Alive!; Vincent Medley, Director of Human Animal Support Services; Diaz Dixon, Advisor for External Affairs and Partnerships for the HASS project; and Alexis Telfair-Garcia, Social Work Program Development Manager at Austin Pets Alive!, answer your questions about why and how human and pet support services can work together to better support people and pets.
These webinars are going to leave you inspired, ready to take action—and, we hope, eager for more! You won’t have to wait long: We’ve got an incredible, must-watch webinar on language and compassion coming up on Tuesday, May 9 at 5 p.m. CT with Shannon Glenn, Executive Director of My Pit Bull is Family. You won’t want to miss our webinar on compassion fatigue, featuring Hilary Hager from the Humane Society of the United States. That one’s on Thursday, May 25 at 5 p.m. CT.
You’ll find more information on these webinars and others by signing up for the HASS weekly newsletter, which, on top of being the best source of HASS news, is also the punniest newsletter in animal welfare.
