Role of the Facility

Imagine this: The vast majority of animals your organization touches have pre-determined pathways to foster or adoption before ever having to enter your facility, saving them stress and allowing you to utilize that space for the animals who need the most hands-on help. 

Your community is able to access critical services at your facility, such as emergency supplies, lost and found help, and one-on-one case management, to ensure families and their pets can stay together. Your organization creates partnerships with other human and animal services agencies that allow for more services than ever before to be available to people and their pets, resulting in a happier, healthier community.

One of the most exciting things about the Human Animal Support Services (HASS) shelter movement is that you can start right now, without expensive capital campaigns, by reimagining the role of your physical facility as a community animal center. 

The first step is evaluating how your organization currently utilizes the space you have. What spaces in your facility are the most important to your core mission? What spaces get used the least? Does your facility accommodate the most frequent community needs? 

Asking yourself these questions and more can begin to build a road map to the shelter of your future.

By evaluating how you can shift your current facility’s space to better reflect the needs of your community, you are not only creating opportunities to keep more people and pets together, but you are creating a sustainable future. 

To evaluate your current facility, click here for our Existing Facility Analysis. 

What could the future of your facility look like? Our Building and Facilities Working Group has created a sample layout of the ideal community animal center. As you consider next steps, think about how your facility could evolve into community-centric spaces like these.