Animal Protection Society of Orange County, Inc. dba Paws4ever: REDI Training Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

Thanks to this wonderful grant, all staff members and four board members were able to take the REDI training. All people involved in the training agree that Paws4ever could do a much better job engaging and learning from BIPOC individuals in our community. Additionally, our staff and board are lacking in racial, gender, and other types of diversity.

Going forward, we would like to see Paws4ever do a systematic review of our recruitment and hiring process for all groups (volunteers, board, staff) for exclusionary language and requirements; compare the populations we are currently serving to the demographics of our community (based on census data) and see where the gaps are; identify proximal leaders within those communities and reach out for conversations where we can listen to the needs of those communities; and work with those community leaders to implement strategies that will be most impactful to those communities.

Ideally, this engagement with and support of new communities will increase the diversity of our staff and board once barriers have been identified and removed and will help us better connect with and share/provide resources to BIPOC community members.

How many pets did this grant help?

200

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Zoey came into Paws4ever on Dec. 2, 2021, from a county shelter. We knew Zoey was going to be a difficult adoption because she had separation anxiety and allergies and was dog-selective.

We posted an adorable video of Zoey recently, which brought some much-needed attention to her. One couple that saw this video came to meet her this past weekend.

The husband and wife are currently living in a camper because the husband travels for his job. Before the REDI training, we likely would have turned these people away from adopting Zoey due to their not having a permanent residence at the time of adoption.

Thanks to the training, we realized that their living situation did not define the type of pet owner they were. Zoey is now living happily with her new owners (and her new cat sister) as they travel around the country.

The REDI training has also positively impacted our processes and procedures. Our organization is in the process of translating our brochures, which we hand out at events and have at all our locations, into Spanish, and we are also evaluating ways we can make our website and adoption application more inclusive.