The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is partnering with target animal welfare and community organizations in several U.S. cities to initiate a program that provides those organizations with various resources, such as financial assistance, planning and training.
The partnership, dubbed “ASPCA Mission: Orange,” consists of what the ASPCA calls “a focused effort to create a country of humane communities, one community at a time.”
To achieve its goal, the ASPCA and its partners say they plan to identify each target community’s needs and implement programs that will result in immediate change for the animals in these communities, particularly the shelter population, which is most at risk.
The ASPCA says programs could include — but are not limited to — financial assistance and grants, strategic planning, community grass-roots activities, humane education and a variety of training opportunities.
“In the more than 30 years that I have been involved in animal welfare, I have seen, time and time again, that we, as an industry, are most effective in saving animals when we put our differences aside and pool our strengths to achieve what is, after all, a shared goal — the elevation and continued welfare of animals in our society,” ASPCA President and CEO Ed Sayres said Jan. 10 in the project announcement.
The ASPCA says it has made a three-year commitment to each of the communities it will partner with in the 2007 phase of ASPCA Mission: Orange. In 2007, it will invest up to $200,000 in each community toward capacity-building and animal welfare efforts.
During the first year of the campaign, the target communities of ASPCA Mission: Orange are public and private animal welfare agencies in Austin, Texas; Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss.; Philadelphia; Tampa, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; and New York City.
For more information on the ASPCA Mission: Orange project, visit its website.