Volunteer with Us!
The Elk Grove Animal Shelter is always happy to welcome volunteers to the team. With over 200 active volunteers at any time, we are very grateful for all our community members that dedicate their time to shelter pets in need. There are many different assignments that volunteers can be involved in from socializing cats and dogs to keeping those laundry machines running or greeting visitors in the lobby!
Current Volunteers
If you are a current volunteer, login to your VicNet Portal. In your Portal you can sign up for shifts, update your contact info, or post your hours.
New Volunteers
Our minimum age for volunteers is 14 years old, with the following basic requirements:
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Junior Volunteers:
If you are 14-15 years old, you can volunteer but must have a parent/guardian volunteering with you at all times. Your Parent/Guardian team member must also attend orientation, complete an application, and attend any trainings/shifts you attend. Some assignments may have age restrictions. -
Teen Volunteers:
If you are 16-17 years old, you can volunteer without adult supervision but you will need your parent’s written consent. -
Adult Volunteers:
If you are 18 or older, you can volunteer independently and do not require parental consent. -
Children:
If you are under 14 years old, you cannot volunteer onsite at this time. However you can still find ways to help the animals such as organizing a donation drive, craft projects, or educational outreach for your community. -
Students:
If you are looking to fulfill required community service or service project, please be aware that we are unable to accommodate short term volunteering or volunteers who need to complete service within 6 months of when they apply. -
Groups:
At this time we are unable to accommodate group volunteer projects onsite, but if you would like to complete a service project for the shelter please contact our Volunteer/Events Coordinator Koreena at kwalsh@elkgrovepd.org
How Do You Get Started?
First: Decide if the Elk Grove Animal Shelter Volunteer Program is right for you. Please join us if you can:
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Commit to a minimum of 4 hours per month for at least 6 months. You must continue to sign up for and attend 2 shifts (approximately 2 hours each) to remain active even after your first 6 months.
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Regularly check your email. This is the primary way we communicate to volunteers.
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Consent to a live scan. We run background checks on each of our volunteers by way of a digital fingerprint (live scan). We cover the fee and it will only take 15 minutes of your time.
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Attend all required trainings for each assignment you would like to work, regardless of your previous experience.
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Commit to providing service without judgment.
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Commit to treating all animals with respect.
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Understand that the shelter environment is challenging, rewarding, chaotic, wonderful, crazy, heart-breaking, fulfilling, and lots of hard work!
Second: Attend an orientation to get more detailed information about our program and ensure you would like to move forward. Volunteer Orientations are held just once a month and have limited capacity. We try to offer orientation on different days of the week/times to accommodate different schedules. If you are unavailable for any of our current upcoming orientations, check back often for new dates.
If you are excited to continue in our program after orientation, you will receive further instructions to move forward. Thank you and we look forward to meeting you soon!
Foster Care
The opportunity to share your time with a shelter pet for a few hours to a few weeks or longer is all available through our foster program. Help raise the most as risk pets in our community and create happy and healthy pets for years to come!
The EGAS Foster Program includes:
Doggy Day Out - Field Trips and Sleepovers for our dogs.
Traditional Fostering - Raising kittens and puppies until they are old enough for adoption.
Medical Recovery - Creating a healing space in your home for animal post-surgery or recovering from illness.
Behavioral Hurdles - Socializing our "Spirit Kittens" or "Spirit Pups" and working through behavioral challenges with our adult dogs and cats.
Staycations and Adoption Marketing - Giving long stay dogs and cats time outside of the shelter and helping them get adopted.
Critter Camp - Fostering of small mammals and reptiles.
Joining our foster network is simple! Just apply, join us on Facebook and attend trainings online or in person as they become available