Coordinator, Community Programs

Schedule: Tuesday – Saturday.
Direct Reports: Volunteers and Interns.
Key Work Partners: CACC Team, 360@CACC Program Team, Adoption Team, Volunteer Program Team, Foster Team, Animal Care Team, Intake Team.

PAWS Chicago and Chicago Animal Care & Control (CACC) have joined forces on 360@CACC, an innovative public-private partnership delivering 360-degree, lifesaving support across the full journey of Chicago's homeless and at-risk pets — from keeping animals out of the shelter in the first place, to getting them adopted, transferred, or reunited with their families. In 2025 alone, this partnership helped drive CACC's most successful adoption year on record and a 22% increase in animals transferred to rescue partners.

This is a program with real, measurable momentum, and the Coordinator, Community Programs will be at the center of it. Based full-time at CACC, this role is both an adoption and volunteer leader and a key builder of 360@CACC's newest initiatives. The Coordinator approves, coordinates, and completes adoptions at CACC while coaching and empowering the volunteers and interns who make those adoptions possible.

This role also serves as Program Coordinator for Rescue Ready, PAWS Chicago's spay/neuter and medical-resource program that helps CACC pets become transfer- and adoption-ready, and provides critical support in standing up new 360@CACC programming — including Pet Resource Fairs, the Homeward Bound Highway intake and networking program, and administrative support for the Pet Owner Support team. This is a role for someone energized by fast-paced shelter work, skilled in compassionate and crucial conversations, and excited to help build new programs from the ground up alongside a growing, innovative partnership between two respected Chicago animal welfare organizations.

As the city's impoundment facility, Chicago Animal Care & Control's mission is uniquely responsible for protecting public safety and ensuring the humane care of animals through sheltering, pet placement, education, and animal law enforcement.

As the largest comprehensive No Kill humane organization in the Midwest, and one of the largest in the nation, PAWS Chicago's founding mission is to build a No Kill Chicago; to end the overpopulation of homeless animals through prevention programs like spay/neuter; and to transform animal welfare by setting higher standards in the way animals are treated and developing a sustainable, solutions-based model.

360@CACC is a public-private partnership between PAWS Chicago and Chicago Animal Care and Control designed to provide life-saving resources to Chicago's homeless and at-risk dogs and cats. Developed in response to a post-pandemic surge in pet homelessness and strain on city shelter resources, the program's mission is to provide 360-degree support across the full lifecycle of shelter animals — from preventing intake to improving live outcomes through transfer and adoption.

• Set a positive tone for an inclusive volunteer culture, recognizing and appreciating volunteer commitments.
• Provide guidance and direction for CACC's adoption program, comfortably discussing complex animal behaviors and backgrounds in terms adopters can easily understand.
• Approach adopter conversations and matchmaking with a lens of empathy and social-work-informed support, meeting people where they are to find the right fit for both pet and family.
• Understand and communicate the tenets of pet ownership, animal care, and training suggestions with potential adopters. Liaise and collaborate with CACC volunteer base to complete adoptions and other 360@CACC initiatives.
• Comfortably and…