Placer County HHS programs awarded for animal services as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion

Placer County’s HHS programs receive national awards

AUBURN, CA – Placer County Animal Services has received an award from California State Association of Counties, the organization announced this week. The CSAC Awards highlight the most innovative programs developed and implemented by California districts.

Animal Services started working with petsmart in 2019 to adopt cats off-site at the company’s Auburn store. As one of the only municipal shelters in the state to pursue this kind of public-private partnership with PetSmart, county employees have also found unique ways to streamline technology and protocols to cross-promote adoptions at both the shelter and the store. Four years later, more than 850 PetSmart cats and kittens have been adopted as part of this partnership—nearly 30% of all cat adoptions in the county.

“Although we save more than 93 percent of our kittens and kittens, finding creative ways to get cats out of shelter faster and increase adoption rates is essential to maintaining a successful cat program,” said Katie Ingram, program director. “We value the ongoing PetSmart partnership and are thrilled to see this program featured as a statewide model.”

Earlier this year, the program itself received an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties, or NACo. An additional program within the Department of Health and Human Services also received the Achievement Award, a program from the Department of Human Services that has helped improve access to benefits for homeless clients with complex needs including mental illness.

“This recognition by our peers across the state and the nation highlights how thoughtful our administration really is,” said the HHS director. Dr. Rob Oldham. “I commend our employees and community partners who have played a critical role in this work.”

epidemic era

Finally, two pandemic-era PR campaigns that HHS helped coordinate—a rental assistance enrollment campaign and a multilingual campaign to reduce the harm of COVID-19—earned recognition this year from both the California Association of Public Information Officers and the California Capital chapter of the public. American Relations Association. The latest campaign was recognized in both organizations’ inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awards categories. Key partners in these campaigns included the Placer Community Foundation, local community organizations, and Prosio Communications.

We are grateful to have partnered with you Placer County HHS We support these campaigns and particularly appreciate the many nonprofit partners who have facilitated our outreach and vote-gathering activities,” said Veronica Blake, CEO, Placer Community Foundation. “We are humble and proud of our solidarity and commitment to the community. We believe we have achieved the greatest unseen reward: the countless seniors, families and essential workers whose lives have been better protected and supported during a devastating virus.”