Youth Volunteering- Shelter Scouts Program
What is it?
The Shelter Scouts program explores different ways that youth can help pets in our community. Participants will explore the world of animal welfare through service learning projects, educational activities, and animal meet-and-greets. This program is supervised by our Humane Education staff, so there is no need for parents/guardians to be present.
Shelter Scouts is open to youth ages 8-17. Sessions are held for 2 hours once per week, for three weeks. The fee for Shelter Scouts is $100/student/3-week session. This fee helps to cover the cost of staff supervision during the program as well as additional COVID cleaning supplies. Limited financial assistance is available for qualified applicants, and a link to our scholarship applications can be found at the bottom of this page.
Youth should enroll based on their age on the first day of the session they are registering for. All program hours are eligible to be signed off as service hours. Participants are welcome to sign up for multiple 3-week sessions, as each session has different content, activities, and animals.
Students will receive one shirt on their first day of their initial session only (students registering for multiple sessions will not receive additional shirts). Additional shirts are available to purchase for $15 each.
What Will We Be Doing?
Students will be completing a variety of tasks to assist East Bay SPCA programs and the animals in our care. Some examples of potential service projects include making dog treats, assisting with shelter laundry, creating adoption posters, preparing for upcoming East Bay SPCA programs or events, making cat toys, assisting with shelter clean-up, providing attention for the animals in our care, etc. Participants will learn about responsible pet care, the medical needs of animals, dog and cat behavior, training techniques, animal advocacy and more.
While all activities will be centered around helping the shelter and the animals in our care, participants should not expect to spend the full session with the shelter animals. In order to make sure our animal-loving participants still get the dog and cat time we know they love, we will plan to include a minimum of one hands-on animal meet-and greet per day. As an animal shelter is a very dynamic environment, the planned daily tasks are always subject to change based on the needs of our staff and shelter animals.
Sessions
Each session is completely different, with new activities, volunteer tasks, lessons, and of course animals! Feel free to sign up for just one session or all of them. Students can join any session; participants will not be confused or lost by starting on session 3 without having attended any previously.
Due to current COVID concerns, we have adjusted to the following cancellation policy:
- For cancellations made 7 days or more prior to the program’s start date, we can provide you with refund minus a $25 administrative fee to your credit card or check.For any COVID related cancellations– due either to potential or confirmed symptoms or exposure isolation– we can provided you with full credit to your East Bay SPCA registration account balance, which can be used at a later date to either reschedule the same program or to sign up for future education programs such as our Winter, Spring, and Summer Camps.
- Please note, we cannot accommodate any makeup sessions. Transferring sessions due to illness cancellations is subject to availability.
- Shelter Scout sessions will be capped at 15 participants
- All participants and staff are strongly encouraged, but not required to wear masks on site, regardless of vaccination status
- Our policy is social distancing as much as feasibly possible within a childcare setting. While we will be encouraging and aiming to positively enforce social distancing, much of our focus is on ways to promote disease prevention if and when social distancing is broken—such as increased hand washing and sanitizing, keeping in small stable groups, and sanitizing spaces and objects between uses.
- Activities may be moved outdoors as weather allows. When we are indoors, we will be in an area not accessed by the public. Additionally, we have a state-of-the-art ventilation system that is designed with disease transmission in mind, due to the fact that our shelter has always had to take exceptional precautions against highly dangerous transmittable diseases for our animal population.
- Staff will do a visual check of participants upon arrival and may ask about any new or different symptoms appearing in campers. Any potential symptoms will result in a temperature check or a child being asked to return home. Previous conditions such as seasonal or pet allergies and asthma will be taken into consideration. An elevated temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher will be considered contagious and the individual will be sent home.
Spring 2023 Sessions: January – May 2023
Wednesday 4 – 6 PM
Pre-Teen Group Ages 8-11
Session 4
Mar 15, Mar 22, Mar 29
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
OAKLAND
8323 Baldwin Street
Session 5
Apr 12, Apr 19, Apr 26
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
OAKLAND
8323 Baldwin Street
Session 6
May 3, May 10, May 17
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
OAKLAND
8323 Baldwin Street
Saturday 10 AM – 12 PM
Teen Group Ages 12-17
Session 4
Mar 18, Mar 25, Apr 1
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
Session 5
Apr 15, Apr 22, Apr 29
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
Sunday 2 – 4 PM
Teen Group Ages 12-17
Session 4
Mar 19, Mar 26, Apr 2
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
OAKLAND
8323 Baldwin Street
Session 5
Apr 16, Apr 23, Apr 30
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
OAKLAND
8323 Baldwin Street
Session 6
May 7, May 14, May 21
DUBLIN
4651 Gleason Drive
OAKLAND
8323 Baldwin Street
Scholarship Applications
You will have the option to select age level and day after clicking the preferred location below.
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