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Volunteer Application

Volunteer Application

HELP WANTED

Taking on a dedicated role with Safe Harbor is fun and rewarding.  It doesn’t pay in dollars–we’re an all volunteer organization, but the payment in knowing you are making a difference, following your passion and saving lives is priceless.

To start volunteering we ask that you be ready to commit.  A Safe Harbor Volunteer Should:

  • Be 14 years old or older (youth under the age of 18 will need their parent or legal guardian to sign a permission slip and liability waiver).
  • Be willing to commit to a minimum of 1 shift 2 hours in length once per week
  • A commitment to volunteer for at least 6 months.
  • Be willing to read our volunteer handbook, sign an acknowledgment to agree to our policies, and sign a liability waiver
  • Must NOT have a history of animal or child abuse or neglect

What can you expect?  When you apply to volunteer your application will be reviewed and you will be responded to in email or by phone by the appropriate shift leader.  During this phone call the shift leader will sign you up for a small group orientation at one of our many foster farms.

During orientation, you will be able to purchase a volunteer shirt ($10 cost) that you can wear during your volunteer shifts and to events.  You are welcome to purchase more than one shirt, but we do ask all volunteers to have one shirt so they can be identified as a volunteer when we hold events.

During orientation, you will have an option to sign up to assist at upcoming events and/or for available shifts at our foster farms. We ask that you be prepared to commit to at least one scheduled event or a weekly farm shift.

Please note that riding volunteers will be paired with horses of their ability and may be asked to complete a separate riding assessment. We do not have horses appropriate to teach beginner riding lessons and ask that volunteers keep that in mind. Continuing education is always encouraged for riders and non-riders of all levels.

Welcome Our Volunteer Enrollment Form.

Please complete this form if you are interested in becoming a Safe Harbor Volunteer. This form helps us get to know you, and how we can work together to help horses. After you have completed this form, our volunteer coordinator will reach out to you to either set you up with an onboarding mentor or make arrangements for you to come to an open house! Please note, our training center is located in Cottontown, TN. While we have foster homes all over the mid-state, we cannot guarantee that a volunteer position will be open at our satellite foster farms. Most hands on volunteer work does take place in Cottontown and the surrounding areas.

The following are some potential opportunities for volunteering with horses. Please read in detail, and then mark your selections below on the roles you are interested in helping with.

Horse Biography Writer: Collect data from various sources including Facebook, Foster Homes, Foster Director, and Volunteer Management Site to write and update accurate horse adoption profiles that help market the horses. Uses Wordpress and RescueGroups Cloud software packages.

Event Planner: Lead the fundraising team of Safe Harbor, and take the lead role in planning future fundraising events. Utilize the volunteer team to delegate tasks, and coordinate the project plan for successful events. This is a very goal oriented role that is critical to the successful future of Safe Harbor.

Volunteer Coordinator: Onboard new volunteers and assure completion of liability waivers. Introduce volunteers to their closest volunteer foster farm, or help them find a suitable administrative role. This is a key position and interfaces across all other key coordinator roles of the rescue.

Foster Liaison: Keep in weekly contact with assigned foster homes for updates on horse appointments such as farrier, deworming, veterinary, training, etc. Log these appointments in to the cloud based software package, RescueGroups.

Medical Records Coordinator: Interface with Rescue Director, Foster Director and Safe Harbor veterinarians to log veterinary appointments and assure all animals are up to date on necessary annual vetting. Record appointments in RescueGroups, and upload documents and records into Google Drive.

Transporter: Help transport horses during intake, or from one foster home location to another with your own truck and trailer. Adoption transports are a paid service that the adopter pays for!

Farm Assistant: Come to the training center or a foster farm once a week or more to help with grooming, mucking stalls, feeding, trough cleaning, and other needs.

Trainer: Help with refresher training or starting training for a horse of any age and experience level in the rescue.

Event Help: Support Safe Harbor at events with help with parking, concessions, crowd control and other fundraising tasks. This volunteer role is needed every time an event is scheduled.

Youth Coordinator: Lead a team of youth volunteers at the training center for ongoing educational farm days.

Tell us about yourself!

Thank you for completing this form!

We are so grateful that you are interested in learning about volunteering with Safe Harbor. Within 1 week, you will be contacted by our volunteer coordinator. We schedule prospective volunteer open houses at least once every 2 months, and you will be directly invited to one of these open houses. At Safe Harbor we love our volunteer culture, and we'll work together to make sure that our organization mutually the right fit and that your time spent with us will be rewarding. We look forward to meeting you at an open house where you will learn more about our history, mission, values and goals for the future.