The Association Blog

This week’s installment in our Innovation Bank series of short, pre-recorded webinars highlights the wealth of programs, forms, guides, and SOPs in San Diego Humane Society’s Kitten Resource Center.

San Diego Humane opened the first-ever 24-7 kitten nursery in 2009, and in the first 10 years alone they cared for more than 12,000 cats and opened two additional facilities. They’ve been gladly sharing materials and insights with colleagues in the field, but not all are able to tour the nursery in person. To that end, an online portal compiling all the resource was launched in June 2019 and is available to the animal sheltering community. San Diego’s Nursery Manager Jackie Noble shares her favorite tools and tips in the Kitten Resource Center:

Kitten Nursery Guidelines, Forms, and SOPs

If you’re thinking about starting a nursery or enhancing yours, this is the place to start. You’ll find space & cost requirements, over 20 staff training videos, and written protocols and processes. Oh, and video tours of their 3 facilities.

Online Foster Orientation Materials

SDH’s team of foster volunteers has grown from 800 to 1,700 as of last year, and they couldn’t have done it without online training. “Volunteers can be active within 40 minutes of signing their application,” Noble shares. The Kitten Resource Center includes all the videos as well as printed training materials, and examples of their volunteer comms, which is done via a blog format.

Kitten Hotspot Maps

This resource will teach you how to use Google Maps to keep track of the areas where kitten intakes are coming from in your community.

Community Program Models

Here you’ll find plans for throwing Kitten Showers—both in-person and virtual—as well as full deets on how to set-up a Kitten Yoga program and a Kitten Kindergarten behavior class for new adopters. 

Want to join the more than 100 active users of the Kitten Resource Center? Visit www.sdhumane.org/krc and follow the instructions to access the portal.

To learn more about San Diego Humane’s programs and facilities, and additional resources in the Kitten Resource Center, listen to the complete recording.