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The ASPCA Community Outreach staff answer questions about applying
to become an ASPCA partner community, requirements, and what
communities can expect if they are accepted.
Becoming an ASPCA Partner Community
Data Collection and Analysis
Programs and Strategies for ASPCA Partner Communities
Other Resources from ASPCApro.org
Becoming an ASPCA Partner Community
Q. What can I do to get my community considered?
First, make sure your community meets the basic requirements described in What Makes a Shovel-Ready Community. If it does, send the link about the ASPCA partner communities
on our website to leaders in the major sheltering organizations in your
community and follow-up to assess their interest in partnering to make
major change. After that, follow the instructions in How to Apply.
Q. What organizations would typically apply together for their community?
It's required that the major public and private agencies (that
combined shelter 80% of the community's homeless animals) be involved.
If there is a targeted spay/neuter program in the community, it should
certainly be included. Beyond that, any community organization,
governmental or private, with potential to play a significant role in
creating a humane community could be an effective partner. A minimum of
two and a maximum of five agencies with these qualifications must agree
to be community partners.
Data Collection and Analysis
Q. What is the ASPCA Animal Stats Dashboard?
Our dashboard is a management tool that sorts shelter data into a
series of key indicators. These help you know where your work towards
increasing the live release rate is on track or off track. The purpose
is to provide focus and support management decisions, not to evaluate.
Your community's Dashboard is also the basis of the work you will do
with the ASPCA to identify animal populations at risk, research the
causes, develop strategies and programs to address the risks, and
evaluate whether those programs are working as intended.
Q. Who will compile the data and coordinate the efforts for our community?
Each participating organization will be responsible for collecting
its own data using an online data entry system provided by the ASPCA.
The ASPCA Dashboard team will monitor data submission. ASPCA experts
assist in analyzing the data and make recommendations based on the
results.
Q. Will my agency's data be made public?
Individual agency data is shared only within the partnership and
with ASPCA experts consulting with your community partnership in order
to understand and improve the community live release rate. Composite
community data is shared in order to inspire community support and
offer learning opportunities for the field.
Programs and Strategies for ASPCA Partner Communities
Q. What kinds of expertise will the ASPCA provide?
The kinds of expertise introduced during the year will be determined
by the data collected for each community. In other words, whatever the
data indicates might make a real difference in your community is what
the ASPCA will help you implement.
Throughout your community's partnership with the ASPCA, you can draw
on ASPCA staff who are experts in everything from shelter wellness to
high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter, to fundraising, and much more.
Q. What kinds of changes in program or practice have had measurable results in ASPCA Partner Communities?
- Changing shelter cleaning protocols
- Changing vaccination protocols
- Improving animal flow through the agency
- Shifting to open adoption policies and practices
- Implementing ASPCA SAFER™ aggression assessment
- Implementing Meet Your Match Canine-ality™
- Implementing Meet Your Match Feline-ality™
- Transferring animals from a low adoption agency to a high adoption agency
- Conducting community-wide adoption events
- Expanding and enhancing foster care programs
- Implementing and enhancing TNR collaboration
Q. Who makes decisions about what programs are implemented?
Final decisions will be made locally; however, it is assumed that
recommendations from the ASPCA, based on data and considerable research
and experience in other communities, will be given serious
consideration.
Q. Where does the money come from to start new life-saving programs?
It has been our experience in ASPCA partner communities that many of
the most effective changes in program and practice are not expensive to
implement. However, as you identify programs and projects that affect
the live release rate for your community's animals, you can apply for
ASPCA grants to fund these efforts.
Q. Why is ASPCA's Meet Your Match® recommended for our partner agencies that do adoptions?
ASPCA's Meet Your Match is the only adoption program proven to
increase adoptions, decrease returns, decrease length of stay, and
increase customer satisfaction. ASPCA's Meet Your Match is a win/win
for organizations, staff, the public and the animals.
Q. What is open adoption?
Open adoption is a philosophy that the purpose of adoption
counseling is to help people succeed in adopting. Open adoption
agencies generally have few or no hard and fast adoption criteria and
instead use guidelines as a checklist of things to discuss in the
adoption counseling.
The goal in this approach is to enable adopters to learn what they
need to know for the adoption to succeed for both animal and adopter.
Other Resources from ASPCApro.org
Q. Not all of the major players in our community are ready for partnership. What else can we do?
If your community isn't yet ready for partnership with the ASPCA,
you can still get lots of information from the ASPCA to help you save
more lives:
- Explore www.ASPCApro.org to discover success stories, free
resources, and how-to information on every aspect of saving animals
lives.
- Shift to an open adoption philosophy, and start working with your community to support more good homes for animals. Download the Report on Adoption Forum II to get started. And read about organizations that have successfully implemented this approach.
- Implement ASPCA's Meet Your Match and start improving and increasing your adoptions right away. Read about Meet Your Match and find training resources for this life-saving program.
- Implement the vaccination, examination, and cleaning protocols
and other recommendations provided by ASPCA Shelter Veterinarians. You
can download their recommendations for shelter wellness and implement changes that make your facility a safer, healthier place for the animals in your care.
- Start "making plans to make a difference." Everything you need
to conduct effective planning for your agency is available in our downloadable business planning guide.
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