We will probably be holding another volunteering day later in the year. If you think you might be interested, please email Rosemary <rosemary@rspcacambridge.plus.com>.
RSPCA Cambridge and District branch covers an area of South Cambridgeshire stretching from Littleport in the North to Royston in the South and from Gamlingay in the West to Newmarket in the East. The branch is responsible for raising funds to run our animal welfare services within this area.
We are holding a volunteering day on Sunday 25th February 2007 at the Fulbourn Centre (note that this is just past the Townley Memorial Hall, which is an older building). We will be at the centre from 10 am to 4.30 pm and the day will include two formal training sessions: a morning session which will be a general introduction to volunteering with the RSPCA and a shorter afternoon session specifically geared to people who think they might be interested in volunteering to serve on the branch committee of management. In addition to these two sessions there will be time for questions and general chat about the work of the branch.
This is intended as a generalised introduction to "how the RSPCA works" to enable potential volunteers to get more out of their relationship with the branch. It is relevant to any of the volunteer posts at RSPCA Cambridge. At the moment we particularly need to recruit volunteer drivers, fundraisers, charity shop helpers, committee members, home-visitors (to assist with matching up animal adopters with animals in need of homes) and short-term animal fosterers.
10 am Tea/Coffee and biscuits
11 am Introduction to volunteering with the RSPCA
1 pm Lunch (please bring a packed lunch)
2 pm RSPCA Branch trustee training
(This session is not restricted to people who are definitely thinking of joining the branch committee - we will be very happy to include participants who would just like to know a bit more about how an RSPCA branch operates)
4 pm break for Tea/Coffee
4-4.30 pm Question and answer session and a general opportunity to have a chat with current branch committee members
Anyone is welcome to attend for all or part of the day. The two "sit-down" training sessions will run from 11 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 4 pm. During the rest of the day members of the branch committee will be available for general questions and there will be leaflets about volunteering to take away. There will also be a display of some of the work done by the branch.
If you haven't time to stop, we'd still be delighted to have you drop by for a few minutes to pick up some information and look at the displays
Coffee and tea will be provided, but if you plan to attend for the whole day, please bring a packed lunch. If you plan to come to one or both of the main sessions it would be a great help if you could email Rosemary <rosemary@rspcacambridge.plus.com> so we can have a rough idea of numbers.
Running our animal welfare activities costs an average of £96,000 each year. This money is spent on keeping animals alive and relieving suffering by paying for veterinary treatments and on boarding unwanted animals until we can rehome them. In an average year we help around 3,000 individual animals. A very large proportion of our welfare work consists of providing low-cost veterinary care for animals whose owners cannot afford the full cost of treatment. There is no National Health Service for animals and without us most of them would either go without treatment or be put to sleep. It is often true that their owners ought to have been more responsible, but we have to deal with society as it is - and unfortunately we are all too often presented with a desperately ill animal and an owner with no money at all. The majority of the animals we take in for rehoming are not simply healthy unwanted animals but are either ill, injured or neglected so they usually require a considerable amount of expensive treatment before they can be rehoused.
We do not receive funding from the Government and it is comparatively rare for us to be given large donations or legacies, so we have to work hard to earn the money that is needed. Most of our funds are raised by a combination of charity shop sales, annual box collections, and a variety of stalls and events.
We particularly need more helpers at our shops, collectors for RSPCA week and volunteers to help with our annual dog show
