Today’s guest post comes to us from Emma Gabbert, Digital Content Specialist Intern at Whisker Media.

Last month, Jamie Case and Janet Alderson from Gateway Pet Guardians (GPG) in East St. Louis, Illinois (just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri) hosted a webinar called Keeping Families Together: Pivoting Community Programming to Support People & Pets During COVID-19. It was part of an American Pets Alive! webinar series designed to help animal welfare organizations learn best practices and share information. Case and Alderson shared their experiences in changing community programming to adapt to new challenges.

Community Programming Model

COVID-19 has impacted communities across the globe harder than anyone expected, devastating many low-income areas. GPG’s story is a great example of how animal welfare organizations can use their existing resources and programs to help vulnerable pet families in their own communities.

GPG responded quickly to COVID-19 after years of dealing with another challenge that taught them important lessons. After years of battling a stray dog problem, Case, the executive director of GPG, decided to use community programming as a way to combat this problem. Initially overwhelmed, Case decided to hire a community director, Alderson, to head up this new pet overpopulation project. Eight years later, the stray dog problem is now under control, and GPG is tackling COVID-19 challenges in a similar manner.

With the stray dog problem, GPG knew they had to figure out the focus of their program for this plan to be successful. Identifying the need was not an issue, but zeroing in on a single problem to tackle proved difficult. For eight years, GPG had been feeding stray dogs and taking tame canines into their care to be fostered and adopted. In spite of this, the number of feral dogs in the area kept increasing, and Case and her team knew they needed a new strategy to address the issue. That’s when GPG began to use community programming to map out challenged areas and focus on those locations within their service area. The new approach proved to be successful.

Facing COVID-19 through Community Programming

When COVID-19 started to shut down businesses, it resulted in thousands of pet families losing their jobs. GPG knew their community would be hurt by the pandemic and took immediate action to create resources that were accessible to the most impacted families.

Staff at GPG knew that the most-needed resource was a pet food pantry.

Located in a region with no pet supply stores or veterinarians, East St. Louis is considered a “resource desert” for pets and humans alike. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, GPG’s pet food pantry operates using a no-contact drop-off method for donations and uses volunteers to deliver food to families in need. The pantry is stocked with donations from corporations and fellow community members and volunteers, and it was an immediate success.

Hope for the Future through the Kindness of People

As for the future, the headquarters of GPG is closed due to COVID-19. When the organization reopens, GPG plans to resume low-cost spay/neuter and veterinary services. In addition, they will continue to use community programming to organize more pet food pantry shelves at central locations, such as local grocery stores.

GPG ultimately believes that the kindness of people will help us all get through our challenges. Vulnerable communities across the globe are suffering, but as long as there are people willing to put themselves on the front lines to help others, difficulties can be overcome. The webinar ended with a message of hope and a bright future: together, we’ll all get through this.

To learn more about GPG, visit their website.

Emma Gabbert is a junior at Minnesota State University, Mankato majoring in mass communications and double minoring in political science and marketing. A lifelong cat lover and former foster mom, she is a new mom to two little kitties named Baymax and Jobama.