Agenda - 09-19-2006-7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Animal Services Sheltering Practices and Philosophies 67 have to do something here. This is not like New York or Michigan or California, This is Alabama.' .,, I have posed a lot of these questions to them, and I think I got them thinking." The Reward for Elbow Grease Clearly her words were taken to heart, even though a second proposal was also rejected; in that scenario, the "no kill" Mobile SPCA would have been the lead agency in a Maddie's coalition, But this time Avanzino came back with a proposal of his own: Maddie's Fund, he said, would be interested in funding a spay/neuter program through the veterinary association, Thetwo-year, $2,5 million grant would provide money for sterilization surgeries of pets whose owners were on Medicaid-a boon in Alabama, where at any one time, as many as 500,000 people are Medicaid recipients, says Fridley. The goal would be to sterilize 10,000 animals in the first year and 30,000 in the second.. Fridley was delighted with the plan, which has come to be known as "Maddie's Big Fix for Alabama," "As long as it was going to spay or neuter, I think it's great," she says. "I'm really thrilled with it because it's doing exactly what I wanted to do to begin with, which was spay and neuter, The only reward that any of the shelters in the state will get from this is fewer animals and less euthanasia." Fridley's proposal is not typical of those Maddie's Fund has so far chosen to accept; mast have been concentrated in the western half of the country. But the future may hold more Maddie's projects in regions further east, says Avanzino, Since Maddie's Fund considers itself something of a "startup" that's still on a learning curve, grant requirements are continuously evolving, he says, Avanzino readily acknowledges that applying for a Maddie's grant is a rigorous process. It's designed to be, he says, because Maddie's Fund wants to attract only those organizations that have already assessed the needs in their communities and established formalized coalitions to address those needs. The "reactive' funding approach ensures that the process is driven by the community and by a genuine desire on the part of all the animal groups in a given area to pursue a grant, says Avanzino. "This should not be a way to just get money, It should be a way to get help to do something that they wanted to do anyway but just needed resources [to do]," he says. "It is not a perfect answer for anybody, and it is not something that we consider to be the only model, It is just an approach that Maddie's Fund is investing in to try to achieve our goals and fulfill our mission." Many potential grantees study other projects Maddie's has funded when designing their plans and proposals, but there is no single blueprint, says Avanzino, "Just because this works in Salt Lake City or Nadi [California] or Austin or wherever, we don't want you to follow their model," he says. "Look at their