405: Building Flexibility Through Team-Based Direct Service

Liz Raganella from Paws NY shares how her organization has rebounded from the pandemic and is expanding their service area. One of the program components they’ve implemented has been a team-based approach to direct services - creating teams of volunteers to deliver daily pet-support services to their clients in New York City.

Guest Bio

Liz Raganella

Senior Program Manager

PAWS NY

Liz is a native New Yorker who believes in the power of community and the bond shared between humans and animals. She graduated with her B.S. in Psychology from St. Joseph’s University, where she participated in and coordinated community service projects in Philadelphia. Wanting to fully engage in a year of service, Liz joined AmeriCorps and spent a year in Denver assisting people experiencing homelessness with accessing healthcare. She continued working with this population at a community resource center and noticed how her clients would go to any lengths to protect their pets and how that companionship made a big difference in their lives during difficult times. This stuck with her, as Liz has been a lifelong animal lover, and she is grateful to combine her interest in human services with animal welfare at PAWS. Her favorite animal is her rescue dog, Obi.

Show Notes

When the pandemic hit New York City so many direct client services had to shut down - PAWS NY which delivers in-home pet services and care for clients needed assistance was one of those organizations. After a few months Liz Raganella had volunteers ready to get back to work - even though they were still in the thick of the pandemic!

In this episode Liz shares how she’s created a team-based approach to client services so dogs can get walked on their regular schedules and other pets can get the food and care they need while still allowing volunteers to have the flexibility they need to respond to their other responsibilities. Team members are encouraged to communicate with each other, share information about the pets (if you are a pet owner yourself you might have a good idea of what information is shared most often!), and fill-in or support each other as needed. While PAWS NY uses a proprietary solution to connect their teams of volunteers those activities could be accomplished with something like WhatsApp or Slack as well.

After the pandemic PAWS NY received funding to expand their services and Liz talks about what’s next - including recruiting volunteers and locating clients in the outer boroughs, expanding veterinary service, and being able to serve new types of clients - people who have been unexpectedly hospitalized.

You can reach Liz at liz.raganella@pawsny.org or on LinkedIn linkedin.com/lizdesimone

And you can learn more about PAWS NY at pawsny.org or by following @PAWSNY on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

For More

For more on how to match communications with the needs of volunteers check out Season 3 of the Time + Talent Podcast Episode 304: Managing Change through Strategic Communications.