In desperate need of shelter volunteers!

OK guys, I need some ideas! Our shelter has daycare workers that take care of things M-F 7/8am to 2/3 pm ish. We are open Tue, Thur eves & Sat morning. However, we realy solely on volunteers take take care of the animals Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat eves as well as Sun am & pm. We have almost no volunteers...

How can we recruit more volunteers? We've had ads in the papers, flyers have been put up, etc. We live in a rural area, so generally no one cares much. Normally we have 2 volunteers come in: one for cats & one for dogs. We have none lined up for several nights....

Some ideas that worked for us.

If you have a community college or technical college in your area, visit it and investigate who to speak to regarding community outreach.
Colleges or universities often have some organizations that are looking to assist as well as being offered college credit for helping your shelter!

Solicit your local boys/girls clubs, scouts etc. they often have programs for young adults(16+) that are willing to help with animals. Merit badges are usually earned for some of the kids by helping.

If you have a local television station that features a community segment every night, a thoughtful letter may turn into a free on air request for assistance.

If these options are really not available to you due to your remoteness,
Keeping flyers on your person when you goto the store, groceries, mall etc and offer them to anyone who notices your love for animals. Im not saying stand and hand these out, but if you wear clothing that either references your shelter or your love for animals, animal lovers have a tendency to notice and say something. At that point you mention your urgent need for help and give them a sheet with all the information they need (where, when, what animals etc)

I hope this helps.

Point 1 and 2 really helped us, but we have 3 local colleges in the immediate area.

Good luck and THANK YOU for taking care of these poor unwanted souls.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

OK guys, I need some ideas! Our shelter has daycare workers that take care of things M-F 7/8am to 2/3 pm ish. We are open Tue, Thur eves & Sat morning. However, we realy solely on volunteers take take care of the animals Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat eves as well as Sun am & pm. We have almost no volunteers...

How can we recruit more volunteers? We've had ads in the papers, flyers have been put up, etc. We live in a rural area, so generally no one cares much.

Normally we have 2 volunteers come in: one for cats & one for dogs. We have none lined up for several nights....

Click to expand...

Aww, thats so sad Natalie, just to hear that people from our area aren't that into volunteering like that
Wish I lived closer!!

I don't know if you've got many churches near you but you could also try local churches,see if any of them are having a coffee morning?Or meetings and go down
with some literature on the work that you do and how vital volunteers are to the
rescue and the animals.Take lots of pics with you of the needy cats too,If they pull their heartstrings It'll be worth it.
You never know you might even recruit some foster mums as well as volunteers

Originally Posted by white cat lover

OK guys, I need some ideas! Our shelter has daycare workers that take care of things M-F 7/8am to 2/3 pm ish. We are open Tue, Thur eves & Sat morning. However, we realy solely on volunteers take take care of the animals Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat eves as well as Sun am & pm. We have almost no volunteers...

How can we recruit more volunteers? We've had ads in the papers, flyers have been put up, etc. We live in a rural area, so generally no one cares much.

Normally we have 2 volunteers come in: one for cats & one for dogs. We have none lined up for several nights....

Click to expand...

Colleges are great....Churches are wonderful....If you have a YMCA or other community center, post there.

Katie

I just volunteered at a shelter due to an article in the local newspaper. Its about 15 minutes from my house which isn't too bad. I think that would give yo the most publicity. Perhaps people are thinking its too much of a time committment-you could explain it would only take xxxxx amount of minutes to help out.
How about contacting Girl Scout/Boy Scout troops for a way to spend a meeting??

Originally Posted by white cat lover

OK guys, I need some ideas! Our shelter has daycare workers that take care of things M-F 7/8am to 2/3 pm ish. We are open Tue, Thur eves & Sat morning. However, we realy solely on volunteers take take care of the animals Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat eves as well as Sun am & pm. We have almost no volunteers...

How can we recruit more volunteers?

Click to expand...

We've had ads in the papers, flyers have been put up, etc. We live in a rural area, so generally no one cares much.

Normally we have 2 volunteers come in: one for cats & one for dogs. We have none lined up for several nights....

Click to expand...

I am considering doing this now in my spare time. How much spare time though are we talking about. I do not live where you do but things I would think would be pretty much the same. The big problem I see here is I said I was going to stick to one cat and then found a desperate cat that needed care, so what is going to keep me away from bringing cat number 3 home and then.......

Where are you located and what org are you with. I may be able to help for a few hours Julie

Originally Posted by Persi

so what is going to keep me away from bringing cat number 3 home and then.......

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Knowing that by taking that ONE, it will prevent you from helping hundreds.

That's how I get through fostering kitten season.

Where we really need volunteers are when we are not open, so Boy Scouts, etc do not work then. We would still require an adult, experienced volunteer. There is no local YMCA, either. We put ads in the paper weekly, asking for 2 hours a month. We get many families to volunteer, but they cannot do the nights we are not open, unfortunately. We do require that anyone under the age of 16 be accompanied by an adult.

Persi, it depends on your local shelter. Here, even if you only spend one open night(2 hours), we are eternally grateful! Any time you can spend, we've had people come for 30 minutes before. It doesn't really matter to us, because every extra person, no matter for how long, means just that much more time spend socialzing the animals!

Aw, I would if I lived there! Too bad.

You might post an ad at a local college, especially any one that has a vet school attached. Anywhere they have vet related or animal related programs, it might help. I think if you could especially work out some sort of internship with a local college (even if it's not so local, people from your immediate area might travel there for school), it might help. They'd probably get a lot of helpful experience and insight into animal illness and so forth working in a shelter.

The one college near me...I go there. It's an hour away from this shelter & anyone that is willing to volunteer goes to the shelter like 20 mins away. There is no local college with a vet or vet realted program.

I know the vet clinics have been telling people who might be interested that we need volunteers, too!

Do you have a clinic in your shelter?

Maybe put a call in to your local senior center? You might pick up a few volunteers there.

Nope...we have to use local vet clinics. We might just have to try putting up flyers at the local senior centers...