The Co-Sheltering Collaborative is a national network of homeless service and animal welfare providers who gather to advance the practice of co-sheltering people and their animals together at the same facility. As this coalition of organizations and individuals work to create a more equitable world for people and their pets, we also see a need to look internally to create equity within our own operations and our professional fields.  

 

The Racial Justice Working Group has been developed to advance racial justice and to uphold the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion:

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1. Internally, within the Co-Sheltering Collaborative.

2. Externally, within the broader fields of the animal and veterinary care sector; the homeless services sector; and the interdisciplinary fields which encompass both human and animal welfare.

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To help us reflect on the ways race and privilege affect us and the work that we produce, the Racial Justice Working Group has developed a process to help members reflect and encourage consciousness at the beginning of each of our meetings. This process utilizes global and personal queries to help ground us in social justice before working together. 

 

We are providing this training video and query collection form to help everyone gain familiarity with this process. Moving forward, we encourage all Co-Sheltering Collaborative large group meetings and working groups to use this reflective process. The training video is ~15 minutes long.