Welcome to the Friends of the Animals Volunteer Page!
As a volunteer, you’re essential in our mission to improve the lives of animals in our care. Our most popular roles—fostering and dog walking—are key to preparing our pets for their forever homes.
By fostering, you offer temporary homes that provide love and comfort, helping dogs and cats become well-adjusted and ready for adoption. As a dog walker at the Jackson County Animal Shelter, you’ll give dogs the exercise and training they need to stay healthy and happy while they await their new families.
In addition to these impactful roles, we also need support in various other areas. Whether you’re engaging in enrichment activities, facilitating playgroups, or assisting with administrative needs, your involvement helps us provide comprehensive care and support to every animal.
Explore the volunteer opportunities below and discover how you can make a meaningful impact.
Ready to join us? Fill out an application today and become a valued member of our dedicated team!
Care for cats in a home setting, helping them adjust and prepare for adoption.
As a Cat Foster Volunteer, you will provide a safe and nurturing home for cats in need of foster care. Your responsibilities include feeding, socializing, and caring for cats, helping them adjust to life outside the shelter and preparing them for adoption.
Visit the Cat Foster webpage for full details on this rewarding activity.
What’s your impact?
Your involvement as a Cat Foster Volunteer provides cats with the comfort and stability they need to thrive. By offering individualized attention and a peaceful environment, you help cats become more sociable and ready for their new homes. Your dedication directly contributes to their well-being and adoption success.
Provide temporary homes and care for dogs until they find permanent adoptive families.
As a Dog Foster Volunteer, you will provide a temporary home for dogs, helping them transition from the shelter to a permanent home. This role involves offering love, care, and basic training to foster dogs, ensuring they are well-adjusted and ready for adoption.
Visit the Dog Foster webpage for details on this rewarding adventure.
What’s your impact?
Your role as a Dog Foster Volunteer allows dogs to experience life in a home environment, which can reduce stress and anxiety, making them more adoptable. By providing personalized attention and care, you help each dog develop social skills and confidence, improving their chances of finding a loving forever home.
Take foster dogs on outings to provide them with enriching experiences outside the foster home.
As a Foster Field Trip Volunteer, you will take foster dogs on outings, such as hikes, beach visits, or even just a ride around town. These excursions provide dogs with much-needed physical exercise, mental stimulation, and socialization opportunities outside the foster home. Your role involves ensuring the dog’s safety, monitoring behavior, and providing positive reinforcement during the trip.
What’s your impact?
By giving dogs a temporary break from the foster home, you help reduce their stress levels and improve their overall well-being. These field trips offer potential adopters a glimpse of how the dogs behave in real-world settings, increasing their chances of being adopted. Your efforts help foster a healthier, happier dog population, making it easier for them to transition into their forever homes.
Provide exercise and training to shelter dogs, helping prepare them for adoption.
Support dogs at the shelter by providing training and one-on-one time with them. Volunteers in this role will receive training on how to handle and care for the dogs at the shelter.
What’s your impact?
Walking dogs helps prepare them for their new homes by teaching them to follow directions, providing exercise opportunities, and promoting their overall mental and physical well-being. Our volunteers in this role ensure that animals are ready for adoption and will flourish in their new homes.
Engage dogs in activities to enhance their mental and physical well-being.
As a Dog Enrichment Volunteer, you will engage in various activities to stimulate and comfort our dogs as they await their forever homes. Your tasks may include preparing and freezing Kong toys, playing calming music, organizing play sessions, and creating fun, interactive activities to keep the dogs mentally and physically active. You’ll also assist in socializing the dogs, ensuring they are well-adjusted and happy.
What’s your impact?
Your efforts as a Dog Enrichment Volunteer enhance the well-being of our dogs, making them more adoptable. By providing mental and physical stimulation, you help reduce stress and anxiety, promoting happier, healthier animals ready to find their forever families.
Facilitate dog play sessions to promote socialization and exercise.
As a Play Group Runner Volunteer, you will facilitate play sessions for our dogs, ensuring they have time to socialize and exercise. You’ll monitor interactions, report behaviors, and provide feedback on their progress. Your responsibilities include organizing playgroups, supervising play, and maintaining a safe and clean yard environment.
What’s your impact?
Your role as a Play Group Runner Volunteer is crucial in helping dogs develop social skills and reduce stress. By providing regular playtime and socialization, you improve their overall well-being and increase their chances of successful adoptions. Your observations and reports help us tailor care and training to each dog’s needs, preparing them for their forever homes.
Oversee kennel operations to ensure a clean and safe environment for dogs.
As a Dog Kennel Coordinator, you will oversee the daily operations of the kennels, ensuring a clean and orderly environment for the dogs. Your duties include monitoring the kennels, coordinating cleaning schedules, ensuring each dog receives proper food, water, and care, and addressing any needs or issues that arise. This role requires an eye for detail and a willingness to get a bit messy to maintain high standards.
What’s your impact?
Your role as a Dog Kennel Coordinator ensures that our dogs live in a clean, safe, and nurturing environment. By maintaining high standards of care and cleanliness, you help keep the dogs healthy and comfortable, significantly improving their quality of life and readiness for adoption.
Assist potential adopters in finding the right canine companions.
As a Dog Adoption Counselor, you will assist potential adopters in finding their perfect canine companions. Using your knowledge from spending time with the dogs, you’ll make personalized recommendations to match each dog’s temperament and needs with the adopter’s lifestyle. You’ll also provide information on the adoption process and post-adoption care.
What’s your impact?
Your role as a Dog Adoption Counselor is crucial in creating successful matches between dogs and their new families. By ensuring that each adopter finds a dog that fits their home and lifestyle, you help reduce the chances of returns and ensure happier, healthier lives for both the dogs and their adopters.
Work closely with dogs to aid in their socialization and behavioral development.
The Dog Holding Crew Volunteer role involves specialized training to work closely with dogs in our care, focusing on socialization and behavioral development. Volunteers in this role will learn techniques for handling and interacting with dogs to help them become more adoptable. Responsibilities include providing daily care, engaging in enrichment activities, and assisting with basic training exercises under supervision.
What’s your impact?
As a Dog Holding Crew Volunteer, your impact is profound. By dedicating your time and skills to socializing and training dogs, you contribute directly to their well-being and adoption prospects. Your efforts help transform shy or anxious dogs into confident, well-behaved companions, improving their chances of finding loving forever homes. Through your compassionate care and training, you play a pivotal role in ensuring each dog receives the support they need during their time with us.
Support administrative tasks to ensure smooth operations of the organization.
As an Office Volunteer, you will support our administrative operations by performing tasks such as data entry, answering phones, and collecting donations. This role is an excellent opportunity for young people to gain office experience and for experienced or retired individuals to apply their skills to help animals in need.
What’s your impact?
Your role as an Office Volunteer is essential in keeping our organization running smoothly. By managing administrative tasks efficiently, you enable our team to focus more on direct animal care and support. Your contributions help ensure that we can provide the best possible services to the animals and the community.
Support various events to promote animal welfare and community engagement.
As a Special Weekend Event Volunteer, you will join our dedicated team to support a variety of events throughout the year. These events include spay and neuter clinics, microchip clinics, fundraisers, and community awareness campaigns. Your role may involve assisting with event setup, coordinating activities, engaging with attendees, and other essential tasks to ensure the success of each event.
What’s your impact?
Your involvement as a Special Weekend Event Volunteer directly contributes to the well-being of animals in our community. By volunteering your time and skills during these events, you help raise crucial funds, promote responsible pet ownership through clinics, and increase awareness about animal welfare issues. Your support ensures that these events run smoothly and effectively, making a positive impact on the lives of animals and their owners.
Utilize your unique talents to support and enhance our organization’s mission.
As a Special Skills Volunteer, you have the opportunity to leverage your unique talents and expertise to support and enhance our organization. Whether you have skills in marketing, graphic design, event planning, fundraising, IT, photography, or any other area, we welcome your proposal to collaborate with us. Your contribution can make a significant difference in growing, improving, or supporting our mission.
What’s your impact?
Your impact as a Special Skills Volunteer is invaluable. By applying your specialized skills, you help strengthen our operations, increase our outreach, and enhance the services we provide to animals in need. Your creativity, 7 knowledge, and dedication contribute directly to our success and sustainability, ensuring that we can continue making a positive impact within our community. We look forward to working together to achieve our shared goals.
Connect our organization with the community to build support and partnerships.
As a Community Liaison Volunteer, you will play a crucial role in connecting our organization with others in the community. Your responsibilities include advocating for our cause, leveraging your contacts to encourage support, picking up donations, and fostering partnerships with other organizations. You will help strengthen our presence and support network within the community.
What’s your impact?
Your role as a Community Liaison Volunteer directly impacts our organization’s outreach and sustainability. By fostering relationships and partnerships, you amplify our ability to help animals in need. Your efforts contribute to increasing awareness, support, and resources, ensuring that we can continue to make a positive difference in the lives of animals and our community.
Volunteer Application
Volunteer Orientation
Please attend a New Volunteer Orientation to hear about our current volunteer opportunities and to figure out which activity will work best for you! Volunteer orientations are held monthly. A reservation is requested so we can prepare for each orientation.
Reserve your space!
Sister Organization Volunteer Opportunities
The Street Dog Project
Consider donating to and/or joining the Street Dog Project outreach team to contribute up to 4 hours/week passing out dog food, harnesses and leashes to homeless dog owners (and cat owners) in order to establish rapport and encourage them to get their pets spayed/neutered.
Taking a compassionate approach to help those in the homeless community decide to spay or neuter their dogs is good for the entire community and helps to reduce the overpopulation problem.
Visit the Rogue Valley Street Dog Project website for program and volunteer details.
Working Cats Volunteer Opportunities
Working Cats is a Feral Cats Advocacy program that seeks to find adoption placements for healthy adult cats that are not suitable for a traditional adoption because they have not been socialized to humans. These cats provide a service to the community as pest/rodent control and deterrent. Previously deemed ‘unadoptable,’ now these cats can live out their lives outdoors. All they need is a safe sheltered space with regular access to food and water.
Visit the Feral Cats Advocacy Working Cats website for volunteer and adoption details.
