Ohlone Humane Society (OHS) supports and welcomes families and our youth in need of community service projects or hours by offering opportunities whenever possible. OHS understands that community service and volunteering at early ages are important for students and families to understand and promote the importance of human-animal well being. OHS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit animal welfare organization in good standing with the IRS and state since 1983.
PLEASE READ THIS FIRST!
OHS Is All for the Animals, but we are not a shelter.
Our only facility is our wildlife rehabilitation center in Newark that is not open to the public except one day each year for our open house. Our only “resident” animals there are wild, temporary, and in need of veterinary care. Those short-stay animals are treated or rehabilitated by trained volunteers and then released to their natural habitats with as minimal human contact as possible.
If you are seeking direct hands-on animal care as your community service, you may have to contact a shelter or other facility. Everything we do, though, at OHS supports animals, whether wildlife or pet animals and their families.
Still interested? Listed below are ways youth, their families, and youth groups can be involved in our volunteer programs to service animals and pet owners.
FOSTER
Spend time with kittens who need you!
DONATION DRIVE
Collect items to help animals in need!
GARDEN
Help tend to the gardens at the WRC!
READ TO A PET
Read aloud to your furry friend!
Become a Youth Volunteer
STEP 1: See our program descriptions & requirements and current opportunities. We are always open to ideas for innovative projects to accommodate youth volunteers and families, so for other projects or your own ideas feel free to contact us at youth@ohlonehumanesociety.org.
STEP 2: Select a project and fill out an Online Request Form. All student/youth requests will be reviewed by our program personnel and, if needed, we will get back to you with instructions. We will do our best to support the students in our community, within our resources, staffing and availability. If your desired project is currently needed, we will ask you and all members of your group to complete an OHS volunteer application.
STEP 3: Submit an OHS Volunteer Application. To work with OHS or for a youth to receive service hours, an adult over 18 years must submit a Volunteer Application. Volunteers under 18 years of age must have a parent or legal guardian complete the form and list them by name as a child/youth. You may include more than one child/form.
All scout troop/club leaders and parents supervising children under 18 must complete a volunteer application. If representing a group of children desiring service hours, the parent/legal guardian of each child must submit an application with their child listed for the project. Media projects intending to show minors’ images or names will require consent to publish articles, photos or videos completed by the parent.
Youth Volunteer Opportunities
Wish List or Donation Drive: Any Age with Parent Supervision: Donation drives for food and supplies from our wish lists on Amazon and Chewy to collect supplies like vital pet food, training treats, enrichment toys, and over the counter flea control for the community. Coordinated with Youth Program and various departments : current needs for Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Foster Kitten, or Trap-Neuter-Return.
Plan Your Own Event: Any Age with Parent Supervision: Host a philanthropic event of your planning and arranging: car wash, fun run, etc at school or community with school / parent consent and supervision to raise funds for certain community animal care projects. Coordinated with OHS Philanthropy.
OHS Planned Community Events: Any Age with Parent Supervision: When OHS events are planned, sign up as a volunteer for and attend an event performing assigned tasks to help, including distribute literature, direct people to various OHS information, help with tasks like counting number of doggy tail wags, etc. Parental supervision required. Coordinated with OHS Youth, Volunteering & Events Staff.
Online Fundraiser: Ages 13+ ONLY: Online fundraising with parental supervision to create Facebook posts, promote assist for injured or orphaned animals when needed and Share, Follow, and Like OHS media announcements and event promotions through personal social media to raise donations and suggest items for the community to purchase and send to OHS for care of pets and wild animals.. Coordinated with Youth and OHS Philanthropy
Special Philanthropic Projects: Age 16-17 ONLY: Coordinate directly with the OHS Philanthropy team on special donation projects. Coordinated with OHS Philanthropy.
Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Gardens: Any Age with Parent Supervision: Follow the directions from our garden manager to help create, restore, and weed, plant, dig or maintain the gardens that supply some of the food for our wildlife center. Coordinated with OHS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Special Scout & Club Projects: Ages 10-18: The center OCCASIONALLY has special outdoor/building improvement group projects for ages 10-18 years available with a parent onsite at all times during the project. No youth/scout group projects are available inside the center. Coordinated with the OHS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
Read to a Pet Enrichment: Ages 5-13: Select a book appropriate for the student age and reading level about pets or wild animals and read aloud to your pet or a friend’s pet with permission and supervision. Have your parent take a short video or photos of you reading the book to your pet up to 15 min/day and up to 5 books may be read. Complete a downloadable worksheet about the animal’s reaction, what you learned, and send photos/video and the completed worksheet to humane_education@ohlonehumanesociety.org. Coordinated with OHS Humane Education.
Crafting: Any Age with Parent Supervision. Please note: OHS does not have a facility so crafting may be done at home or on your own group arrangements.. Any Age with Parent Supervision: Make cat or dog blankets; sew TNR trap covers, create animal-themed toys or decorative items for OHS to use with the community and foster animals or sell at events. Service hours up to 10 hours or more with approval of project, scout troops and scout awards, club projects. Craft items for animals MUST be pre-approved for safety. Coordinated with OHS Humane Education/Youth.
Environmental Cleanup & workbook: Any Age with Parent Supervision: Take a neighborhood walk or somewhere selected by your parent and collect trash. Request and complete a Cleanup with OHS report for the amount of time you spent cleaning up and completing the log book up to 5 hours and send it to humane_education@ohlonehumanesociety.org. Coordinated with Humane Education/Youth
Foster Kitten Care with OHS Foster Parent: Ages 10-17: Parent must be a fully trained OHS Foster Parent and be assigned kittens by OHS program manager. Youth must have a regular assignment, send a video or photos of interaction with kittens, and submit a parent or other adult verified written record using the Foster Kitten Care Logs provided. Service up to 5 hours. Coordinated with Youth and Foster Kitten program.
Pet Therapy With Certified Parent: Ages 15-17: Parent-Pet-Youth team: Parent & pet TEAM must be already qualified with OHS and student must be at least 15 years old. Student needs to pass handling evaluation by manager. Parent-pet team must supervise youth handlers at all times. Coordinated with Pet Therapy.
OHS HUMANE EDUCATION COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS
Stemming from our OHS Humane Education patch program, additional requirements have been developed to earn community service hours for school or clubs with these expanded learning opportunities.
Open to any ages with parental supervision, but targeted for high school students.
Videos may be posted with parent consent on our OHS You Tube Channel to educate our community.
Coordinated with OHS Humane Education.
PETS SERVICE PROJECT: Pet Care & Training Video & Workbook: Learn to care for any pet you love or a friend’s pet. Complete an OHS Pets Service Project workbook and make a 2-5 minute video for a particular type of pet care –grooming, feeding, training, how to stay safe around the animal, etc. Service project up to 5 hours of service. Coordinated with OHS Humane Education.
WILDLIFE SERVICE PROJECT: Community Science Wildlife Sighting & Habitat Video and Workbook: Be a community scientist and take a walk with parental supervision to look for wild animals:. You can study anything like birds, squirrels, opossum, raccoons, lizards, frogs, bugs, or any species. Complete the OHS Wildlife Service Project workbook and create a 2-5 minute video to instruct others about the animal and habitat. Service project up to 5 hours. Coordinated with OHS Humane Education.
HABITAT SERVICE PROJECT: Create or Restore a Home or Community Habitat Video and Workbook: Follow an instruction booklet to create or restore a habitat for plants or feeders to attract animals migrating or living in your area. Complete the OHS Habitat Service Project workbook and create a 2-5 minute video to instruct others about the animal and habitat. Service project up to 5 hours. Coordinated with OHS Humane Education
ANIMAL WELFARE SERVICE PROJECT: Two options available to students to earn this Animal Welfare Service Project- Citizen Science Observations or Animal Advocacy. You must have parental permission and follow age requirements of each site or have your parent join online projects, but joining the tracking project is not mandatory. Each data collection photographed or screenshot of contributing to the actual online project will earn 0.5 hrs of service. Complete the OHS Animal Welfare Service Project workbook. Service project up to 5 hours. Coordinated with OHS Humane Education.
OPTION 1: Citizen Science Observations : Join a citizen science tracking project from some online tracking projects listed below or obtain our approval for a different tracking project. Send us screenshots of each of your contributions to their data collection. If you do not wish to join, but will collect data in the community, you may photograph the animal or plant on sequential days’ or weeks’ of observations.
Journey North to which you can contribute observations on animal migration
Project Feeder Watch: you do not have to join the project or pay to join, just set up a similar procedure and document your sightings during the observations) and we will enter your observations.
Budburst: you do not have to join or login to the project; download one of the observation sheets and record your findings over 4-6 weeks for either Plant-Animal Interactions or Phenology-Climate projects. We will enter your observations for you if you prefer to not login.
OPTION 2: Animal Advocacy: Research animal rights and conservation issues and select one endangered animal or animals in need of protection, such as farm animals, marine animals, insects, or animal companions. Determine a plan to help this animal survive globally. Up to 5 service hours with a referenced article with photos ready to be published in our Animal Tales e-publication or an OHS newsletter, or create a 2-5 minute video about this issue to be published on our YouTube channel.