Put a little spring in your step with one of these seven online apprenticeships from Maddie’s Fund®. Learn the ins and outs of ringworm, marketing basics, lost pet reunification and more. Each apprenticeship is four weeks long and is made up of a combination of self-paced learning and four 90-minute weekly Zoom meetings with your instructor.
Read on to learn more about the apprenticeships and mark your calendar for the January 24-28 application window. Seats are limited, so don’t miss out!
Feline Lifesaving
Learn how to create and grow multiple coordinated shelter programs that will result in more cat adoptions and increased feline lifesaving. This advanced level apprenticeship is taught by the visionary Monica Frenden, Chief Innovation Officer: Feline Lifesaving at Cincinnati Animal CARE and The Joanie Bernard Foundation. Frenden has changed the landscape for sheltered cats through creating programs that focus on live outcomes. In this course, students will learn how to create and manage essential cat programs, lead staff and volunteers to accomplish goals and be as effective as possible with limited resources.
Marketing Communications 101: The Essentials
Are you interested in developing an authentic relationship with your audience through marketing and communications? In this apprenticeship we take the concepts of the self-paced course and dive deeper into the how-to’s of marketing communications. Students will learn how to create a marketing communications plan, how to use search engine optimization to elevate your visibility through online search, sync up your brand and voice in all your communications and how to cultivate your community to reach your entire community. This apprenticeship is taught by the Maddie’s Fund Marketing Communications Team along with special guest instructors from the marketing communications field.
Ringworm Detection, Treatment and Management
Ringworm is not a fatal disease unless it shows up at a shelter that is unprepared. In this apprenticeship you’ll learn how your shelter can detect and cure ringworm infections and avoid an outbreak through proper management. The apprenticeship is taught by Laura Mullen, CAWA, who founded the SPORE (Shelters Preventing Outbreaks of Ringworm through Education) program at the San Francisco SPCA, which has helped 83 shelters in 24 states start or improve their ringworm programs.
A New Model for Shelter Care: Replacing Kennels with Foster Home
Are you interested in caring for the majority of your organization’s pets in foster homes? In this advanced level apprenticeship, students will learn how to create the infrastructure needed to support a greatly expanded foster program, how you can enable staff from every area of your shelter to work together toward this common goal and strategies for engaging your community in fostering. You’ll also learn about creating and growing foster programs for adult dogs. This apprenticeship is taught by Kelly Duer, Foster Care Specialist at Maddie’s Fund. Priority will be given to shelter/rescue organization teams of two or more.
Short-term Foster and Field Trips
Is your organization looking to save the lives of more adult dogs? Do you have a brick and mortar shelter? Then this apprenticeship is for you. You’ll learn how to create and run several types of short-term foster programs that will provide your dogs with enrichment, get them seen, give you great marketing material, and expand your foster caregiver base. Programs covered include field trips, overnights and emergency foster care. This apprenticeship is taught by Moriah Good, Director of Advancement, Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA.
Managing Shelter Health
In this apprenticeship you will learn how to integrate shelter management and shelter medicine best practices in your own organization to improve the quality of care and save more lives. Topics covered include managing admissions, evaluating capacity for care, conducting rounds, providing proper housing, cleaning and disinfecting, recognizing disease, intake procedures, enrichment, and more. This apprenticeship is taught by the shelter health team at Charleston Animal Society: Dr. Lucy Fuller, Dr. Margaret Morris, Abby Appleton, Becca Boronat, Donya Satriale and Ms. Pearl Sutton.
Lost Pet Reunification
Industry leaders now recognize pet reunification programming as at least equal in importance to adoption programming. Keeping pets out of your shelter has innumerable benefits to your organization, not least being the trust, goodwill (and donations!) you’ll earn from your community. Innovations in lost pet reunification have exploded during the pandemic and continue to emerge every day. This online apprenticeship will be held in a dynamic workshop format where we all share ideas, challenges and successes. This apprenticeship is facilitated and co-led by Gina Knepp, National Shelter Engagement Director at Michelson Found Animals and members of the American Pets Alive! team: Rory Adams, Maddie’s® Training and Education Manager; and Bobby Mann, Maddie’s® Human Animal Support Services Pilot Director.
View full descriptions of our online apprenticeships and remember to apply between January 24 through January 28!