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Finally Home Animal Rescue

Caregiver Shelter Volunteer Onboarding

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Many different volunteer options:

feed animals
clean cages
walk dogs

Caregivers

track donations
stock shelves with supplies
order supplies

Inventory Management

host/help with a Fundraising event

Fundraising

manage Pet Adoption Events

Pet adoption

help train newly acquired dogs

Training

help new transports
help transport to/from vet appointments.

Transport Team

coordinate Caregiver feeding schedules

Volunteer Coordinator

help water and weed flowers at the shelter

Gardner

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Housekeeping

Please keep phones away unless needed
Safety is the number 1 priority
If you have questions: please ask

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Agenda & Objectives

By the end of this session today, learners will have:

Completed the waiver and release form
Bookmarked Sign-Up Genius website to sign up for shifts
Identified the required tasks of a shift
Gone through a volunteer “shift” today applying all required tasks

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Introductions: Whip Around (5 minutes)

Questions to discuss:

Introduce yourself
Have you ever volunteered before?
What brought you to this volunteering opportunity?
What are you most looking forward to?
What are you most nervous about?

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Volunteer Release/Waiver

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Check in: Objectives

Completed the waiver and release form

By the end of this session today, learners will have:

Bookmark sign-up genius website to sign up for shifts

Identify the required tasks of a shift

Completed a volunteer shift applying all required tasks

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Sign Up Genius: Create an account

To create an account:

signupgenius.com or open Camera and scan QR Code

Select “Create a Sign Up”

in upper right-hand corner

Enter your name, email and create a password

5-8 minutes

Facilitator:

Say: Fantastic, we have one more technical process to go through. In order to coordinate everyone’s schedules, we use what is called Sign Up Genius (if anyone is familiar?). This online platform allows you to see who is signed up for what time, and what times are available for you. Our fantastic producer is going to hang out the QR code which leads you to the website and we can create an account right now. *read steps on screen*

Facilitator or Producer has a printout of QR code to hand out and walks around helping make sure everyone is on the website

We will give everyone about 2 minutes to do this and then we will move on. Please let us know if you are having any trouble or have any questions.

Producer: Continue to walk around answering any questions. Transition to next slide when everyone is done

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Sign Up Genius: Bookmarking

To Bookmark on your computer:

Log into your account
Select 3 dots icon in your browser
Select “Favorites” or “Bookmark this page”

(depending on browser)

To Bookmark on your phone:

Open the chrome app
Log into Sign Up Genius
To the right of the address bar, tap More
Select “Bookmarks” (will have a star and should be 1st option)

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Sign Up Genius: shadowing vs. volunteering

Shadow requirements:

3 days of shadowing minimum

volunteer

2 minutes

Facilitator:

So, in order to make sure everyone feels comfortable and prepared, we require that you shadow another volunteer at least 3 times before you can go on your own. Please know you will never be alone at the shelter, there will always be at least one other person with you. However, we want to make sure you are as prepared as possible, and you are certainly welcome to shadow more than 3 times. On sign up genius, there are slots that are designated as shadowing. Everything else is a full volunteer position. You can see the difference on my screen, see how it clearly says “shadow” or “volunteer”?

Do: walk around showing the slide

Say: I want to give everyone about a minute to just look around. You are more than welcome to sign up now if you want or you can do that on your own time. Please let us know if you have any questions, then in about a minute we will move on.

Producer: Walk around monitoring/fielding questions and pointing out differences on volunteer’s screen

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Check in: Objectives

Completed the waiver and release form

By the end of this session today, learners will have:

Bookmark sign-up genius website to sign up for shifts

Identify the required tasks of a shift

Completed a volunteer shift applying all required tasks

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Volunteer Shift Responsibilities

Feeding

Cleaning

Walking

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Feeding

Name

Food

Medication

Behavior

Bones

1 cup dry, 1 scoop wet – slow feeder

HW + No Chew Spray on door

AM PM

Strong, no kongs, frisbee with

peanut butter on door

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Cleaning

1. Let the dog out to play

2. Remove all belongings from the kennel

3. Hang the bed and clean it

5. Mop & Dry the floor

6. Cover floor with new newspaper

8. Put everything back together

4. Throw away newspaper inside kennel

7. Clean and replace water in water dish

5 minutes

Facilitator:

Say: This is the most labor intensive. But it is so important to the health of our animals, and they deserve to have a clean and happy life. So, here’s the process:

Open the door and let the dog go outside to play
Take out their bed, toys, and blankets (if they have any)
Hang the bed up on the side of the kennel (it makes it easier to clean) and spray the bed with cleaning solution and wipe it down.
Throw away any newspaper in their kennel
Grab a clean mop head and a bucket. Pour some bleach in (just enough to cover the bottom) and then pour in some hot water. There are sinks in both kennels. Mop the entire floor of the kennel. Then take a rag and dry any excess water.
Take new newspaper (only paper, none of that shiny slippery stuff) and unfold it. Cover the majority of the kennel.
Rinse out the water dishes and replace the water and feed the dog (if not already done).
Then put the bed, toys, blankets, all back and let the dog back inside (and give that sweet baby a treat with some peanut butter)

*as you read through the list, if applicable point to where the supplies are in the room*

Producer: When Facilitator beings “here is the process” click the title (“Cleaning”) and the list will start appearing. Note: you only need to click once. Assist with facilitator’s pointing out of materials if needed, move to next slide when ready.

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Walking & Play time

Main House

Main Kennel

Fenced-in

Porch Option

Kennel #2

Additional Contained outside space

Long run (connected and fenced-in)

Driveway

Additional Parking

Additional

Fenced in

Porch Option

Street

5-10 minutes

Facilitator:

Say:

And this is the last part. If you feel comfortable, the dogs would LOVE to have some time to play and walk around. There are runs and areas you can let them out and they can be outside or you can play with them. There are lots of toys in the yards in addition to any special toys the dogs have in their kennels. Or if you would prefer to put them on a leash and take them for a walk around the property, you are more than welcome to do that as well.

On the screen you can see a little mockup of what the property looks like. As you can see there are lots of different spaces you can take the dogs that are fences in and contained. You can also just walk them around the property on a leash as well.

Do we have any questions? Let’s take a quick walk around the property so you guys can really see what we are talking about.

Producer: Click at the beginning of slide to trigger animation (only one click is needed) Watch the chat and answer any questions asked. Help bring the group for a quick tour around the property

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Check in: Objectives

Completed the waiver and release form

By the end of this session today, learners will have:

Bookmark sign-up genius website to sign up for shifts

Identify the required tasks of a shift

Completed a volunteer shift applying all required tasks

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Debrief/Share Out

How did we approach the simulated shift?

Did we accomplish all the tasks?

Any issues/ concerns/ questions that came up?

5-10 minutes

Facilitator:

Say:

Welcome back! Again, thank you so much for coming here and helping our animals. I just want to spend a couple minutes debriefing and making sure all your questions are answered and make sure you feel comfortable and ready to come back and volunteer again. *read prompts* Who wants to share first? Select a group if nobody volunteers

Make sure to ask if there were any additional questions that came up and ask their comfort level with what they will be asked to do.

Note: different groups will produce different answers: some may work together, some may split up, some may do one chore for all dogs etc. It’s important that they remember to not contaminate the cleaning products (mops, water, etc.) between animals since some are on medication/have conditions that we don’t want to spread.

Producer: Bring up any outstanding issues/concerns/anything good/concerning you want to bring up and highlight

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Final Thoughts & Survey

Questions? Concerns?

Feeling Prepared?