What zip code are your fosters from?

Director's Corner

Greetings,

We kicked off the Director's Corner enewsletter last July with a focus on the barriers we create to successful adoptions. In reading applications for this year's Grey Muzzle grant cycle, I was struck by the number of organizations that had onerous application processes for their foster families. From 12-page forms to personal references to checks of tax records, the list of hoops sometimes seemed endless. Yet emerging research and best practice suggest that foster homes are important to the well-being of animals in our care. How can changing our approach to fostering create new opportunities? What changes have you made to how you vet fosters? We'd love to hear what's working for you and what's not. Please share your experiences on our Facebook page.

Thanks for all you do to make life better for senior dogs. The more we can learn from one another, the more senior dogs we will help.

Sincerely,

Lisa Lunghofer, PhD

Executive Director

How Can We Make Fostering

More Inclusive?

This article from Human Animal Support Services (HASS) has some great tips on how to expand and diversify your foster base. They write, "If we want to better serve our communities’ needs when it comes to animal services, we need to find ways to engage all of our communities."

Easy changes include considering which zip codes represent the majority of your foster families and making efforts to reach out to people in under-represented zip codes, removing barriers to fostering (e.g., think about why you include certain questions in your screening process), supporting pets in foster homes (e.g., provide food or other resources), and being flexible (e.g., consider overnight or weekend fostering). Learn how simple changes can have big payoffs for the animals in your care and the people in your community.

Read the article

Identify the barriers...

Ready for an exercise? Draw a line through every step your organization requires in your fostering program. Draw an X through steps you would like to eliminate.

Download the pdf.

What do we know about

short-term fostering?

A Maddie's Fund grant aimed to answer this question: Can a dog in your shelter benefit from just one sleepover with a foster?

Five animal shelters, open and limited-admission facilities, from across the U.S. participated in the study. Across all shelters, the researchers found that dogs’ cortisol levels (a measure of stress) dropped significantly during their sleepovers, though they returned to baseline levels after the dogs got back to the shelter. Dr. Gunter who led the study explained, "This data leads us to believe that these sleepovers may act much like weekends to our workweek. They don’t make all our stress go away, but allow us to rest and recharge...Shelters with small populations, ones that are larger and open admission, and those that are limited intake may all benefit from short-term sleepovers.”

So there's one more reason to recruit more fosters and offer options for how long they keep a dog! Read more here.

Creating a culture that values fostering

How often do your social media posts mention fostering? Do you regularly tell stories about senior dogs that need fosters? How about posting pictures of dogs in their foster homes? If you're not talking about fostering regularly (read: every day!), you are likely missing an opportunity to engage your community and help the dogs in your care. Read more about easy ways you can work fostering into your social media strategy.

Read the article

Grantee Spotlight: Austin Pets Alive!

Sometimes necessity truly is the mother of invention. Take Dog N' Dash, for example. The pandemic forced APA! to get creative with their fostering efforts. They asked foster families to come through a contactless drive-through to pick up a dog, completely sight unseen, who they would keep for at least two weeks and try to get adopted. Sounds crazy, right? Well, it worked! From April to August 2020, they placed 632 medium/large dogs in foster through Dog N' Dash, 22.5% of their total new dog placements in foster during that time. Only about 6% of these dogs got returned and about half were adopted within the month they were placed.

Watch this short video to see how the program works.

The Grey Muzzle Organization | Website