Volunteering Information
Our staff is a dedicated group of volunteers who create a safe, nurturing environment for our homeless animals.
Simply put, without our volunteers, there would be no Homeward Bound. Our volunteers man the phone lines, work in our
thrift store, Paws and Claws, and help loving families find their newest family member at adoptions. They walk dogs,
pet cats, feed and play with them, and of course, clean up after them. Our grounds are well kept up and repairs made
due to volunteers who take the time to help us keep things neat. Some volunteers help us with social media and
photography. Some plan fund raisers.
We have volunteers who only help on weekends when they visit North Georgia and youth volunteers who create posters
or wash dishes. Some only have time to run a few loads of laundry, and that's OK, too. We can use help of all kinds.
We need more volunteers who love dogs and cats! Join us! Contact us and let us know
what interests you, or, feel free to fill out our
Volunteer
Form online and submit it to us!
Volunteer Opportunities
-
Adoption Counselor Adoption counselors are trained to assess potential
adoptees to ensure an animal is adopted out to an appropriate owner and into a healthy and safe environment.
The adoption counselors can volunteer at the kennel Open Houses, special events, and at various non-routine
locations as announced. They are also regularly consulted on all adoption applications and contact prospective
adopters and arrange meet and greets between the new family, their pets, and the Homeward Bound animal. They
may also be asked to perform home visits to new adopters. Once an adoption has been completed, they follow
up with the new family to assess the well-being of the dog and his acclimation into their lives, as well as
try to assist with any problems, questions or concerns that arise during this time.
- ASM support** Homeward Bound uses an
online system called Animal Shelter Manager (ASM) to manage the records of our animals past and present. This
system is accessible from the internet and volunteers are needed to make updates to the various animal records
as well as prepare folders for adoptions.
- Creative Projects Homeward Bound
always has a need for writers, designers, graphic artists to assist on an as needed basis.
- Foster Care Fostering opportunities consist
of providing a safe and happy environment for Homeward Bound animals until they can be adopted into a permanent
adoptive home. Homeward Bound will provide for the animal's food and medical care expenses. It is important that
the foster volunteer ensures that the animal attend adoption events and scheduled meet and greets with potential
adopters so chances of finding a home are maximized. Home visits are required before an animal is released for
foster care.
- Foster Care Coordinator
The foster care coordinator assists in the placement of animals in foster homes and helps providers with
scheduling vet appointments, delivery of monthly supplies, and maintenance of quarterly paperwork and attendance
of animals at adoption events.
- Help from the comfort of your home**
Perhaps you are not physically close to the Homeward Bound kennel but still would like to volunteer. Here
are a few of the tasks that are needed that can be done from home: Quickbooks input of vet bills,
reimbursements, supply orders, tally volunteer hours from our sign-in book, search the internet for sales
on the supplies we need, post items we have for sale on e-Bay, make vet appointments for us and update our
online calendar, call our volunteers to see who can do special tasks, write articles for our newsletter,
assist with grant writing and search for grant opportunities
- Home Visitors
These people visit homes of those people who are interested in fostering our animals. The purpose of the
visit is to ensure that an animal placed in the home will have a safe and comfortable place to stay.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture requires us to keep records of home visits and do them twice each year.
We have a specific checklist that needs to be completed for each visit.
- Intake Team
This is a group of people who review intake requests from private citizens who wish to surrender their pets
and/or strays to us and who also visit county animal shelters to select animals to bring into our care.
- Kennel Caretaker
Our kennel operates 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There are two shifts a day to provide care for the dogs
and cats: the AM shift begins at 8, and the PM at between 4 and 5, depending on the time of the year and
amount of daylight in the evening. These shifts may include cleaning the dog's kennels (PM shift only),
bedding, food and water buckets; walking and playing with the dogs; cleaning the cattery and large cat room,
and playing with the cats and kittens.
Other regular jobs include laundry (daily and on all shifts), dispensing medication to the animals as indicated
on their medical sheets, re-stocking supplies, organizing specific areas of the shelter, bathing the animals,
and performing administrative tasks.
- Maintenance
The shelter always needs repairs to the building and equipment, as well as lawn maintenance.
- Phone Team**
Homeward Bound has a phone line for responding to calls about a variety of issues and/or concerns including:
lost/found animals, owners wanting to surrender their animals, prospective adopters, requests for spay/neuter
certificates, volunteer inquiries, donations, and general business calls. The phone team reply to any messages
on voicemail and forward the information to the appropriate board or committee member as applicable.
- Public Relations**
Promotes Homeward Bound and its activities and events through press releases, announcements, flyers, etc.
- Special Eventsb
The special events committee organizes and implements activities that raise awareness about Homeward Bound
and its various roles in the community. These events also provide an opportunity for donations and volunteer
sign-ups.
- Special Projects
Use your special skills to help us improve the way we do things or start a new Project - we currently have
a Spay/Neuter project, a Heartworm Project and we donate pet food to local food banks.
- Thrift Shop Workers
Volunteers normally work a 2-3-hour shift one or more days per week at Paws and Claws. Training is provided
to those interested in working there. Some folks who find that work at the shelter is too taxing may choose
to work at the Thrift Store.
- Don't have time to give on a weekly basis ?
How about some of these unique activities which can be done (with prior approval) when you just have an afternoon:
spend time socializing cats, take pics of cats and write about their personalities for our webpage & Facebook,
take a dog out for a day - to the park, for a hike, for a walk around town to meet potential adopters, take a
dog home for the night to see how it does in a home and write an update for the Adoption Team to facilitate a
great adoption, give a dog a bath, play in our agility pen with one of our full of energy dogs, and teach a dog to
walk on a leash.
** = Can be done from any location