Neighborhood-run Animal Care
- The Required Veterinary Services for Living in Public Housing with a Pet. All residents have the veterinary services and veterinarian certification they need to register their pet with the public housing authority. Families get to keep their pet and managers have options.
- Community “Mousers”. After a decade of public housing residents, property managers, maintenance workers, and our veterinary partners working together, only 5%-10% of “the mousers” remain. The community mousers are well-loved and well-fed by public housing residents and now contribute positively to the community.
- Good Pet Owner Awards. These services are only for residents who have done the right thing for their pet’s health by spaying/neutering and for putting their pet on the public housing lease. In return for playing an important role in changing their neighborhood, we offer free re-vaccinations whenever needed.
- Care for Stray Animals. We reduce the number of animals struggling to survive on the streets in and around public housing. Thanks to public housing residents, managers, and maintenance workers, all the stray dogs and cats have been re-homed.
- Adoption of Pets Whose Families Can No Longer Keep Them. We bring them to our shelter partner who provides a medical exam, treatment, and an adoption family.
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots
- The Community-to- Community Projects. These projects enable communities to contribute to the work being done by public housing residents.
- The Beauty of the Community. Some how, all of us animal lovers in public housing have found one another. We started by saving one animal from a tragic end, then another, then another. Ever since, networks of public housing people have sprouted up and are the bedrock under all our programs.
- Youth Projects. Roots & Shoots empowers and encourages youth go after their passion, mobilize their friends, and become the leaders our world needs in order to ensure a better future for people, animals, and the environment.
- Youth Employment. Our partnership with the City and County of Denver Office of Economic Development has enabled youths attain their first employment while helping animals in their own neighborhood at the same time.
- Education Pipeline. We encourage and support youths pursue the veterinary profession through field trips to shelters and veterinary clinics, serving as animal assistants for the day, and educational curriculum advice.
Research & Knowledge Sharing
- We believe that those in public housing and those in animal welfare have much to learn from one another. Our great hope is for better-informed practices by animal welfare agencies and public housing, plus more resources and services put into the hands of community members. One lesson we learned over the years is that residents matter more than anyone else in producing long-term neighborhood change.