Social Work Program Coordinator

APA! BACKGROUND: Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) is one of Austin’s most dynamic and beloved nonprofits. The organization leads the No Kill movement nationally and is considered a national thought leader in animal welfare. APA! locally rescues, treats, and adopts out 10,000 homeless dogs and cats each year, providing the safety net for Austin’s most at‑risk shelter pets, which helps Austin to be a No Kill city, while also assisting other communities in saving homeless animals.

The organization is distinguished by its large volunteer workforce and the scrappiness of its grassroots and its non‑traditional, community‑based animal rescue work.

The organization continues to innovate best practices to save lives and spreads its impact by offering resources and mentorship related to its renowned lifesaving model through American Pets Alive!, APA!’s national division. In 2020, American Pets Alive! began the Human Animal Support Services (HASS) - an innovative initiative aimed at rethinking the traditional model of animal sheltering. It focuses on supporting both people and pets in the community to reduce the number of animals entering shelters and improve outcomes for both.

The project encourages collaboration between animal welfare organizations and community‑based services, with a goal of providing personalized, proactive support that positions animal welfare as a social service.

We’re seeking an innovative, creative, outgoing social work professional to facilitate our Community Programming and support the organization in their efforts to support staff, volunteers, and fosters in their wellness. This role is responsible for providing essential wellbeing support to volunteers, staff, and fosters, as well as contributing to the development and coordination of new & existing community‑focused programs. This role is key to ensuring the health and resilience of our internal support network, which enables our life‑saving mission.

Current community‑focused initiatives include our Humane Education Program, The Pet Pals Program. This program focuses on introducing “at‑risk” youth (interns) to career pathways in animal sheltering and animal welfare. This 8‑week program occurs three times a year—Spring, Summer and Fall—with a goal of building the next generation of responsible pet owners, and exposing youth to the variety of career possibilities available in animal welfare.

As a critical part of our social work team, the Social Work Program Coordinator will facilitate programming, actively recruit youth, build referral sources through connecting with human welfare organizations working with “at‑risk” youth, create lesson plans and work with shelter staff to create engaging, thoughtful and meaningful hands‑on experience opportunities (approximately 60%). In addition to facilitating the Pet Pals Program, this position will require helping to support staff, volunteers and those who foster animals through Austin Pets Alive!

in their wellness. Running support groups, creating and facilitating training regarding compassion fatigue, burnout, grief and loss and other related topics, as well as providing resources as needed (approximately 40%).

Wondering if you may be the right fit for this role in our organization? If you’re outgoing, compassionate, creative, customer and client‑focused, and understand the macro and micro social work aspects related to pets and people, you might be just who we are looking for! We are looking for an out‑of‑the‑box thinker who has demonstrated the ability to facilitate and manage projects and programs and a desire to learn new things every single day.

• Recruit both youth and adult volunteers for the Pet Pals Program
• Build and maintain relationships with other organizations to help ensure steady youth enrollment
• Design & implement curriculum for the 8 week Pet Pals Internship program
• Facilitate weekly, on‑going programming for several cohorts
• Help support volunteers as they build relationships with youth.
• Facilitate trauma‑informed trainings for volunteers
• Facilitate trainings/workshops/support groups designed to support staff, volunteers and fosters through…