The Nevada Humane Society provides their volunteers an account on cervistech.com where they document our hours and provide a unique code to all of us (seen at the bottom of these images) for verification of our hours. If you follow the link at the bottom of the images and enter the code, you can verify my hours through their program. :)
Uniform
Cat Rooms
Left Picture: Typical Cat Room- Cats in cages stacked against the wall. Right Picture: Play Room- Cats are free to roam all across the room. No cages in here.
Learning to Understand Body Language
Few of the papers in the binder packet that was provided to us during training.
Cats I Became Close To
Left: Lilah and Lou Center: Tater Tot Right: Winifred (the cat I reported sick)
Key Areas of Development
Knowledge Development I was able to experience various things while volunteering, but I think the biggest thing that I was able to develop was a deeper understanding of the importance of helping homeless animals. I was able to directly help these animals by giving them by undivided attention and I really saw this pay off. I learned how to understand/develop a relationship with a cat, how to understand what they're trying to tell me with their body, how to detect if they're sick, how to make follow-up calls and write thank you notes, and, overall, how to do my part in my community. I really felt like I was making a difference in these cats lives. There's various cats that I spent time with who had been at the shelter for years, and giving them some attention really made them not look so sad and depressed.
Personal Development I felt myself grow as a person through my volunteering. I became more compassionate and bettered my time-management and planning skills. With my part-time job, school, and volunteer-work I really needed to learn how to plan out my weeks and make time for what's important. I began to see a shift in these skills and found myself not procrastinating things that I needed to get done. I made time for these things and, ultimately, learned the importance of a planner/schedule.
Social Development Although Maddie's Adoption day (a group activity) is coming up and I haven't participated in a big group, I did learn how to successfully work with others individually. With Jess I learned so much and she taught me so much about cats because, at that time, she had already been volunteering for over a year. I learned so much from her. When Mrs. Davis sent an email about needing volunteers with all the cats coming in, I was able to work on my social development by asking other volunteers present to help me bring out more than one cat at a time so that they felt more safe and secure.
Civic Development Before participating in Service Learning I hadn't been as involved in my community as I wish I would have. I realized how important it is to do what you can. There's so many areas that need help in our community and so many more of us that don't do anything about it. Helping the shelter really changed my perspective in volunteer work. I see it as a necessity now- it's something I have to do. I learned that engaging in my community is detrimental for the greater good of all of us.
Learning Outcomes
Investigation When looking into where I could volunteer I googled "areas in need of volunteers in Nevada" and one of the results that came up was the Nevada Humane Society. I looked into it and saw how many volunteers the shelter requires. There's so many gaps for volunteers, but very few people participating. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to truly help an area of need in my community.
Preparation I went onto the Nevada Humane Society and looked for more information on volunteers. I had to create an account with all my information for them to contact me. When they did contact me they scheduled a date with me to attend volunteer orientation. From there, the next step I took was schedule another date to receive training to work with the cats.
Action Once I attended orientation, I was all set to start directly working with the cats. I had to schedule times with the shelter. Besides working with cats I also did paperwork, thank you notes, calls, laundry, and cleaning here and there.