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  • National Shelter Medicine Rounds – 8/22/23 – Connecting Infectious Disease, Wellbeing, and Equity – University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine Program

    National Shelter Medicine Rounds – 8/22/23 – Connecting Infectious Disease, Wellbeing, and Equity – University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine Program

    The University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine Program is thrilled to announce the next installment of National Shelter Medicine Rounds!

    National Rounds is a platform for discussion of current topics relevant to shelter medicine for continued learning and collaboration.  While primarily intended or shelter veterinarians, others interested in shelter medicine are welcome to join; we believe everyone will take something away from these calls!  The national rounds call will take place Tuesday August 22nd from 2:30 to 3: 30 Central Time.

    The topic of presentation and discussion this week will be “Connecting Infectious Disease, Wellbeing, and Equity”.

    If we really want to change the experiences of the animals and the people we serve, we need to think outside our shelter walls or the foster homes that make up our rescues.  So many of the most common terrible maladies are actually quite preventable. Yet, infectious disease so often results from inequities and lack of access to care.  If we want less illness and better welfare for everyone in our organizations and our communities, we need to connect the dots between infectious disease, well-being, and equity.

    We hope to have an open discussion, so come with questions and feel free to unmute to participate!  Our hope is to create a space that feels safe for all participants; we ask you to follow these Accountable Space guidelines. The presentation portion of National Rounds will be recorded, but the discussion and Q & A sessions will not.

    If you or someone you know would like to be added to the national rounds email list,  please send your request to nationalsheltermedicinerounds@vetmed.wisc.edu.

    Please use the following Zoom link to access National Rounds calls: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/97442637396

    Meeting ID: 974 4263 7396
    One tap mobile
    +13017158592,,97442637396# US (Washington DC)
    +13052241968,,97442637396# US

    Zoom Meeting Link:  https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/97442637396

  • Online Event – 9/12/23 – The Roundtable: Help Your Team Thrive – The AAWA

    Online Event – 9/12/23 – The Roundtable: Help Your Team Thrive – The AAWA

    Is your team fulfilled by their work and engaged in the workplace?  Do you worry they might be looking for opportunities to work elsewhere?

    What a difference thriving team members make to daily operations and your organization’s long-term sustainability!

    Three leaders will share their successful and cost effective strategies for engaging and supporting their teams. Panelists will discuss what has worked and not worked for employee engagement, offering inspiration and ideas your organization can consider.  Conversation topics will include:

    • Taking care of staff before they become burned out or even think about quitting
    • Measuring and deepening engagement with team members to boost retention
    • Identifying how to adopt and adjust policies that can help your team thrive
    • Learn about the SEEDs* assessment and how it can help you understand what your staff needs to succeed

    * Shelter Employee Engagement & Development Survey

    The Roundtable Panel:

    • Leah Craig, Executive Director, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue
    • Rachel Levine, Director of People Development Dumb Friends League
    • Steven Rogelberg, Professor of Organizational Science, Management, & Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

    Moderated by Jim Tedford, CAWA, President & CEO, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://learning.theaawa.org/p/RT-09-12-23

  • Webinar – 10/4/23 – The Problem with Messaging: How Our Words Are Holding Us Back – The AAWA

    Webinar – 10/4/23 – The Problem with Messaging: How Our Words Are Holding Us Back – The AAWA

    Animal welfare has a messaging problem. Current messaging can stoke divisions amongst those who work in animal welfare and between us and members of the communities we serve. There is an increasing focus on access to care and programming to support the human-animal bond, but we use words and stories that hold us back. Everyday narratives undermine our efforts to help people and their pets together and contribute to an epidemic of burnout in animal welfare and sheltering.

    When we change our messaging, we can tell a different story and shift from harmful narratives and beliefs to those that create connection, collaboration, and, ultimately, better programs. In this session, we explore why messaging challenges are happening, how they shape the realities we experience every day, and what we can do about it. You will hear about SPARC (Supporting People and Animal Relationships for Change) and the program’s messaging principles and practices that can help us do our most impactful work for people and animals.

    Presenters:

    • Alison Fotsch Kleibor, CAWA, President & CEO, Wisconsin Humane Society
    • Brad Shear, CAWA, CEO, Potter League for Animals
    • Hanna Lentz, Co-Founder, Impact by Design (IbD)

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://learning.theaawa.org/p/10-04-23

  • Online Event – 9/7/23 – Winning the Fight to Reunite Pets and People – California for All Animals

    Online Event – 9/7/23 – Winning the Fight to Reunite Pets and People – California for All Animals

    Intake is up, but so is innovation and positive disruption. In this series of four dynamic roundtable conversations, frontline workers leading change across California and the country will highlight collaborative approaches to removing barriers that come between people and pets and dish on creative solutions they’re implementing to ensure pets spend more nights at home, not in the shelter. 

    Pull up a seat and bring your questions for our panelists to discuss around the table on August 17, 24, 31 and September 7 from 9-10 a.m. PDT. Register for the series to attend live or access on-demand after each event, and visit www.californiaforallanimals.com/together to learn more about funding and resources available to California shelters working to keep and bring more #PetsAndPeopleTogether / #MascotasYPersonasJuntas.

    September 7: Winning the Fight to Reunite Pets and People

    What’s working and what’s still holding us back when it comes to Return to Home? At this roundtable, panelists will gather to share workarounds for prohibitive reclaim fees and processes, successful all-hands-on-deck messaging approaches, and community-centered programs that are building relationships and reuniting pets and people from the get-go—and keeping more animals out of the shelter. Learn how one shelter more than doubled their RTH rate and achieved more wins for animals, their people, and frontline staff. Pull up a chair, bring your own RTH-related questions, and take a heaping portion of ideas to-go. 

    Panelists  

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://sheltermedicine.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xEvcITQPSHale7-9mKFvLg

  • Online Event – 8/31/23 – Preserving Bonds and Preventing Intake with Barrier-Free Services – California for All Animals

    Online Event – 8/31/23 – Preserving Bonds and Preventing Intake with Barrier-Free Services – California for All Animals

    Intake is up, but so is innovation and positive disruption. In this series of four dynamic roundtable conversations, frontline workers leading change across California and the country will highlight collaborative approaches to removing barriers that come between people and pets and dish on creative solutions they’re implementing to ensure pets spend more nights at home, not in the shelter. 

    Pull up a seat and bring your questions for our panelists to discuss around the table on August 17, 24, 31 and September 7 from 9-10 a.m. PDT. Register for the series to attend live or access on-demand after each event, and visit www.californiaforallanimals.com/together to learn more about funding and resources available to California shelters working to keep and bring more #PetsAndPeopleTogether / #MascotasYPersonasJuntas.

    August 31: Preserving Bonds and Preventing Intake with Barrier-Free Services

    What do families really need to keep their pets? How much of what we believe about why animals end up at our shelters is incomplete or based on oversimplified data? The reasons people surrender their pets are varied and often interwoven, and so are the alternative solutions that can help animals stay in their homes.  

    At this roundtable, we’re diving into accessible interventions that divert intake to keep more pets and people together and the processes for determining and delivering those services in a welcoming, judgment-free manner that ensures community members can reach the support they need when they need it: before the crisis. 

    Panelists  

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://sheltermedicine.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xEvcITQPSHale7-9mKFvLg

  • Online Event – 8/24/23 – Stronger Together: Honoring Community Wisdom with Authentic Engagement – California for All Animals

    Online Event – 8/24/23 – Stronger Together: Honoring Community Wisdom with Authentic Engagement – California for All Animals

    Intake is up, but so is innovation and positive disruption. In this series of four dynamic roundtable conversations, frontline workers leading change across California and the country will highlight collaborative approaches to removing barriers that come between people and pets and dish on creative solutions they’re implementing to ensure pets spend more nights at home, not in the shelter. 

    Pull up a seat and bring your questions for our panelists to discuss around the table on August 17, 24, 31 and September 7 from 9-10 a.m. PDT. Register for the series to attend live or access on-demand after each event, and visit www.californiaforallanimals.com/together to learn more about funding and resources available to California shelters working to keep and bring more #PetsAndPeopleTogether / #MascotasYPersonasJuntas.

    August 24: Stronger Together: Honoring Community Wisdom with Authentic Engagement  

    What does it mean to be truly inclusive? To recognize community wisdom and strengths in order to build our collective capacity to keep and bring more pets and people together? Community is critical to our mission, and if we want to partner with community members and encourage collaboration through adoption, fostering, volunteering, and more, we must create an environment where people feel welcomed, heard and respected.  

    In this roundtable, we’re getting back to the basics of community engagement. Four organizations will discuss high-impact initiatives, from culturally competent translations to programming grounded in mutual respect and appreciation for the diversity of the human-animal bond.

    Panelists  

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://sheltermedicine.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xEvcITQPSHale7-9mKFvLg

  • Online Event – 8/17/23 – Boosting Positive Outcomes: Antidotes to Fear, Bias and Saviorism – California for All Animals

    Intake is up, but so is innovation and positive disruption. In this series of four dynamic roundtable conversations, frontline workers leading change across California and the country will highlight collaborative approaches to removing barriers that come between people and pets and dish on creative solutions they’re implementing to ensure pets spend more nights at home, not in the shelter. 

    Pull up a seat and bring your questions for our panelists to discuss around the table on August 17, 24, 31 and September 7 from 9-10 a.m. PDT. Register for the series to attend live or access on-demand after each event, and visit www.californiaforallanimals.com/together to learn more about funding and resources available to California shelters working to keep and bring more #PetsAndPeopleTogether / #MascotasYPersonasJuntas.

    August 17: Boosting Positive Outcomes: Antidotes to Fear, Bias and Saviorism  

    We want to place animals in loving homes, but strict outcomes policies and processes actually discourage awesome adopters or prevent animals from returning home, increasing length of stay; fear, anxiety and stress responses; and disease risk.  

    At this roundtable, we’re getting real and discussing how we can respond when barriers rooted in fear, bias, and saviorism creep into our systems, muck up our flowthrough, and keep animals waiting. What does it look like when practices and policies are built around love, fairness, and solidarity with our community and in support of our shared goals? Four organizations will explore how community-centered adoption initiatives have opened their doors and jumpstarted positive outcome cycles for animals and more positive, connection-driven cultures among shelter teams. 

    Panelists  

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://sheltermedicine.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xEvcITQPSHale7-9mKFvLg

  • Online Event – 8/17/23 – Boosting Positive Outcomes: Antidotes to Fear, Bias and Saviorism – California for All Animals

    Online Event – 8/17/23 – Boosting Positive Outcomes: Antidotes to Fear, Bias and Saviorism – California for All Animals

    Intake is up, but so is innovation and positive disruption. In this series of four dynamic roundtable conversations, frontline workers leading change across California and the country will highlight collaborative approaches to removing barriers that come between people and pets and dish on creative solutions they’re implementing to ensure pets spend more nights at home, not in the shelter. 

    Pull up a seat and bring your questions for our panelists to discuss around the table on August 17, 24, 31 and September 7 from 9-10 a.m. PDT. Register for the series to attend live or access on-demand after each event.

    August 17: Boosting Positive Outcomes: Antidotes to Fear, Bias and Saviorism  

    We want to place animals in loving homes, but strict outcomes policies and processes actually discourage awesome adopters or prevent animals from returning home, increasing length of stay; fear, anxiety and stress responses; and disease risk.  

    At this roundtable, we’re getting real and discussing how we can respond when barriers rooted in fear, bias, and saviorism creep into our systems, muck up our flowthrough, and keep animals waiting. What does it look like when practices and policies are built around love, fairness, and solidarity with our community and in support of our shared goals? Four organizations will explore how community-centered adoption initiatives have opened their doors and jumpstarted positive outcome cycles for animals and more positive, connection-driven cultures among shelter teams. 

    Panelists  

    • Cole Wakefield (Good Shepard Humane Society)
    • Caitlin Daly (SPCA of Erie)
    • Joy Smith (FieldHaven Feline Center)
    • Denise Woodside (SEAACA)

    WEBSITE LINK:  https://sheltermedicine.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xEvcITQPSHale7-9mKFvLg

  • Webinar – 8/16/23 – Curbing Disease As Intake Rises: Prevent, Fight and Win Today – Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge

    Webinar – 8/16/23 – Curbing Disease As Intake Rises: Prevent, Fight and Win Today – Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge

    From animal care attendants to RVTs and beyond, everyone in the shelter has the power to have a big impact on animal health. Does it seem like animals keep getting sick no matter what you do, especially right now with intake numbers climbing in many shelters? Does URI have to be status quo for summer? Is parvo inevitable? Have you wondered what else you can do to get ahead of these vicious cycles? This webinar is for you!

    UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program veterinarians Dr. Aziz and Dr. Stuntebeck will answer your questions and arm you with the information you need to squash the most concerning infectious diseases in your shelter. Whether you’re providing daily care for animals or reviewing care and intake protocols, you’ll learn practical steps to relieve the strain on animals and team members. Come prepared to UNLEARN unhelpful myths and walk away with tools and techniques that will lead to healthier animals, less stress for you, and make your job of serving the pets and people in your community easier.

    We want to answer your burning questions: submit them when you register at https://tinyurl.com/curbdisease. This webinar will be interactive, so bring your additional infectious inquiries and conundrums for Dr. Aziz and Dr. Stuntebeck to answer live.

    Can’t make it live? Register and receive a link to the recording after the event. Our experts can’t wait to give you what you need to tackle this concerning issue in your shelter!

    Questions? Contact us at learniverse@sheltermedportal.com


    Register Now to Attend Live or Access On-Demand after 8/16!

    Want to invite others to this webinar?

    We have cute flyers for you to download, print, share, and post at your shelter to invite other staff members! Both kitten and puppy options are included so you can print one or both depending on your needs. Also, feel free to share this event listing with anyone else who might be interested.


    Click the image above to download the flyers as PDFs
  • Curbing Disease as Intake Rises: Prevent, Fight and Win Today

    Curbing Disease as Intake Rises: Prevent, Fight and Win Today


    Free webinar for shelter leadership and staff on 8/16/23. Curbing Disease as Intake Rises: Prevent, Fight and Win today. Click on this image or use the registration link in the text below to join live or to access the webinar on-demand.

    Register Now to Attend Live or Access On-Demand after 8/16!

    Curbing Disease as Intake Rises: Prevent, Fight and Win Today

    From animal care attendants to RVTs and beyond, everyone in the shelter has the power to have a big impact on animal health. Does it seem like animals keep getting sick no matter what you do, especially right now with intake numbers climbing in many shelters? Does URI have to be status quo for summer? Is parvo inevitable? Have you wondered what else you can do to get ahead of these vicious cycles? This webinar is for you!

    UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program veterinarians Dr. Aziz and Dr. Stuntebeck will answer your questions and arm you with the information you need to squash the most concerning infectious diseases in your shelter. Whether you’re providing daily care for animals or reviewing care and intake protocols, you’ll learn practical steps to relieve the strain on animals and team members. Come prepared to UNLEARN unhelpful myths and walk away with tools and techniques that will lead to healthier animals, less stress for you, and make your job of serving the pets and people in your community easier.

    We want to answer your burning questions: submit them when you register at http://tinyurl.com/curbdisease. This webinar will be interactive, so bring your additional infectious inquiries and conundrums for Dr. Aziz and Dr. Stuntebeck to answer live.

    Can’t make it live? Register and receive a link to the recording after the event. Our experts can’t wait to give you what you need to tackle this concerning issue in your shelter!

    Questions? Contact us at learniverse@sheltermedportal.com


    Register Now!

    Want to invite others to this webinar?

    We have cute flyers for you to download, print, and share, and post at your shelter to invite other staff members! Both kitten and puppy options are included so you can print one or both depending on your needs. Also, feel free to share this event listing with anyone else who might be interested.


    Click the image above to download the flyer PDF