General Information

• Foster homes are very important for an animal because the environment that animals live in is artificial
• Foster homes help:
  • Animals transition into a home and be ready for adoption
  • Animal shelters open up more space in the shelter for animals that need more close and medical attention

Establish Foster Network

• Promote a lot on social media
  • Post about specific dogs that need fosters
  • Be responsive and transparent on social media
    • Animal shelters who post consistently on their social media accounts and groups will encourage people to adopt and help out
  • Establish that the animals that the people are fostering are the shelter’s, not theirs

Becoming a Foster

• Ask people to fill out a foster application
  • Helps screen understand where people are at so employees can start a conversation with them and establish a relationship with them
  • Application collects specific information:
    • Experience with animals
    • Living environment
    • References to understand if it is true that the person applying knows how to care for animals.

Prepare Fosters

• Animal shelters usually provide equipment, vet care, and training support to help the fosters
• Prepare people to understand that being a foster is a long-term commitment.
  • Most of the time, the animals that they are fostering will stay with them until they are adopted.
• Have a group of long term fosters, and a group of short term fosters
  • Short term fosters = those who will take care of the animals when long term fosters go on vacation or are out of town
  • A lot of volunteers often will start off as a short term foster and become long term fosters
• Encourage people who foster to send photos to the animal shelter’s social media to grow the community
  • Good way to check in that the foster animal is safe.