No More Homeless Pets Forum - 3/23/05
Helping our group become more ethnically diverse

Question from Monica:
Our shelter/animal welfare organization is without any cultural diversity - we do not have volunteers or board members of color. I know because of this that we are missing the opportunity to attract and engage groups of persons in our community that do care about animals - how can we reach out to those persons not well represented in the animal welfare movement - for example, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans???

Response from Merritt Clifton:

Your board composition does not limit your potential outreach. Most humane organizations have boards of five to seven members, who scarcely represent all socio-economic strata and all parts of town, and often don't even represent both genders, but nonetheless manage to serve most of the community and most of the town.

How does this happen?

If all of your board are Republicans, how do you serve Democrats?

If all of your board are Catholics, how do you serve Jewish people and Protestants?

Turn this around any way you like. It's really the same problem, but chances are you have not ever felt you had any problem with serving Democrats or Republicans or people of other religions who look more or less like you. You have known some of those folks all your life. Some live on your block. You're comfortable with them. They donate, volunteer, and adopt animals.

You are not comfortable with those other folks. You don't know any.

That's the whole problem. You don't know Afro-Americans, Latinos, and Asian-Americans. You think of them as strange and different, and besides, you might be afraid of the pit bull terriers and crack dealers on their side of town. You're afraid you'll get mugged if you try to do TNR on feral cats down those alleys.

Well, guess what: most of the folks who live on that side of town are just as afraid. A black child is three times more likely than a white child to be killed or maimed by a dog before age 10, and that's just one of the crime statistics that keeps inner city people living under constant stress that the affection of pets can help to relieve. The cat ladies over there are even more afraid of being mugged, because it is not just an abstract fear; it is a reality of life, along with the further realities that the nearest veterinarian is 10 miles away, animals are not allowed on public transportation, and taxis won't stop on certain blocks.

But the inner city is notthe only place that Afro-Americans, Latinos, and Asian-Americans live. Actually, most live in suburban neighborhoods not much different from those of other Americans. You don't have to go into the housing projects to start doing outreach to minorities: you just have to find the minority meeting place where you might feel least uncomfortable, walk up to the door, and say hello.

Most likely, the place will be a church, but it could also be a community social hall, a school, a firehouse, or a fraternal lodge. It might even be a funeral home.

Don't telephone or e-mail. Those are distancing mechanisms. Go in person. You might take a letter of introduction with you, in case you can't find a person, but usually you will find someone who can introduce you to whomever you need to meet.

That's a start: you are already making contacts.

You say, "Hi. I'm Jo Blow from the humane society. We have a hell of a problem here. We know we are not serving your community very well, and we need help. We'd like to hold a public meeting and find out what we have to do."

Talk about the idea. Explain what the humane society does to serve the rest of the community and wants to do here. Talk about dangerous dogs, feral cats, fostering programs, programs to help older people keep their pets, youth volunteer programs, job opportunities, and - if yours is a smaller organization - your role in training people who advance into better jobs elsewhere.

If someone asks why you are doing this for animals instead of children, talk about how reducing harm to animals makes children safer as well.

Get the neighborhood grapevine going. Hire the hall, ask the people whose hall it is to help circulate announcements, and come prepared to listen.

Take notes about every complaint. Respond carefully to each person. Look for ways to work ideas raised from the floor into your program, and involve the people who raise them in the follow-up.

Do this bravely, and soon you will be holding adoption days and sterilization clinics in the ethnic neighborhoods, developing a network of TNR supervisors and other local representatives, and accepting donations, too, even if you do not actually solicit donations in the less affluent areas. As you become the community's humane society, the community will want to donate to help support
your work, just as they donate to support their churches, schools, and lodges. You may not see big checks, but you will see carefully hoarded ten and twenty dollar bills. These will represent people who are literally buying into your work.

At a certain point you will suddenly realize that you no longer notice the color or the Spanish accent of the people you are working with. You just think of them by name. You may discover, however, that the grapevine has taken your work block by block right into the inner city neighborhoods you were afraid to visit. The housing project cat ladies will meet you where the cabs stop, with their cats already in the plastic carriers you loaned them. The bad guys won't pay you any mind.

Along the way, there undoubtedly will be times when you feel frustrated and overwhelmed. The animal lovers you are helping will have felt that way all their lives. They will understand a few tears, and will appreciate that you have come to help, even if you are a bit awkward about getting acquainted.

http://www.bestfriends.com/nomorehomelesspets/weeklyforum/forumarchives.cfm

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Mar. 23, 2005