What are foster teams you may ask? Well simply put, they are amazing groups of people helping change the path of an animal, that may otherwise have been forgotten, find their forever family.
Creating and cultivating a culture of foster teams within your animal shelter or animal rescue provides many benefits. We’ve got a few to get you motivated to start creating your own foster teams within your animal shelter!
Gives those fosters who may not be able to commit to long-term fostering the chance to help in the foster process.
Take a look back at people who had signed up to foster, and maybe some could not commit for months, but maybe they could help take a dog or cat for a weekend to help the long-term foster family.
Gives your long-term fosters a network for help, should an emergency arise and the pet needs to go to another home temporarily.
It is inevitable that emergencies will arise, and the foster family may need help taking care of their foster pet. Having a network already created for them to lean on means the pet does not have to come back to the shelter. They instead can go to another foster team member’s home.
Provides more opportunities to socialize the animal.
Foster teams help the animals prepare for their forever home. Foster team meetings, get-togethers, or even just walks means the animal gets to experience more of the world, getting them ready for their forever home.
Creates a team of diverse people all coming together to help an animal.
Want to reduce barriers to fostering? Foster teams are one way to do it! Your foster team can help cultivate a strong culture of inclusion by bringing diverse people together to work toward one common goal, saving this pet’s life. As mentioned above, look at who can help your foster program that may have no been able to before. Essential foster team members are out there!
Pools together different skill sets to all help this animal find a home.
Each foster team should be comprised of people with different skills to help the animal succeed. One person may be the leader of the group, another the marketing specialist, maybe a photographer, and someone with dog training experience. Putting these people all together to help the pet get adopted could be the game-changer for that one hard-to-adopt pup or kitty cat!
Save more lives by FOSTERING together!