Program Overview
The Madison House Animals & Environment program works with several community groups and businesses to help improve the welfare of Charlottesville's animals and environment.
Program Sites
Where We're Helping
Charlottesville City Parks
We work in conjunction with Charlottesville's Parks and Recreation Department, providing service in maintaining and beautifying the city's twenty-five parks and school grounds.
Community Bikes
Community Bikes is a free, volunteer run bike shop located in Downtown Charlottesville. The program evolved from the city's Yellow Bike Program, and now provides free maintenance and bikes to all of Charlottesville's residents. Enthusiasm and a willingness to work are the only requirements to use
the shop and to become a volunteer.
For more information please check out the Community Bikes website:
http://www.cvillecommunitybikes.org/
Pet Pals
We volunteer at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (CASPCA). Pet Pals Programs include the following:
Dog Walking and Socialization:
Mon-Sun 8 am - 6 pm
Volunteers will exercise dogs, work on basic behavior training, and socialize extremely shy dogs and puppies.
Cat Care and Socialization:
Mon-Sun 8 am - 6 pm
Volunteers will socialize cats and be responsible for cat area and cage maintenance, laundry, and keeping cat supplies in stock.
Vet Clinic Assistant:
Mon-Thurs 8 am - 6 pm
Fri-Sun 8 am - 4 pm
Clinic Volunteers will have the opportunity to assist the staff veterinarian with medical procedures, observe surgery, and learn about testing, diagnosis, and treatment. Opportunities are limited to those who can make a strong commitment to the program, and vet clinic assistants will be required to complete a separate training session.
Special Events:
Assist staff and volunteers with on and off-site fundraising and adoption events. Events include dog walking on the Downtown Mall, PetsMart adoption outings, and the Rummage Sale. A Pet Pals volunteer must attend at least one event per semester.
Rivanna Trails
The Rivanna Trails program focuses on connecting the community and students
to nature by maintaining and building trails. Our projects include trail
maintenance, blazing, building, a little trash removal, and stream cleanups,
mostly with the Rivanna Trails Foundation or its partner organizations. We
also participate in a walk-a-thon to encourage children and community
members to get on the trails and explore nature. We help Rivanna trails
with their Saturday workdays; however we are organizing other projects such
as stream cleanups and stream buffer plantings.
The Rivanna Trail foundation holds monthly workdays on the second Saturday of each month from 9am-12. All rides are provided to the site from the Chapel. We also have other workdays to be announced soon, which may include special projects on the trail, stream cleanups, and trail blazing. Hours are flexible and attendance at every meeting is not necessary, although volunteers are expected to help for 9-12 hours per semester.
For a list of updated trail work days check out: http://avenue.org/rivanna/events.htm
Service Dogs Reading Program
The Service Dogs READ (Reading Education Assistance Dogs) Program is the newest program addition to Animals and Environment. If you love both children and dogs and want to make a significant difference in a child's life, this is the program for you! This program is an offshoot of Service Dogs of Virginia, which strives to create independence through canine-human partnerships. Service Dogs of Virginia has created a reading program with Madison House that will target children experiencing shyness or embarrassment when reading. Volunteers will make a weekly commitment to take service dogs to a local elementary school where they will help to facilitate 1st and 2nd grade students reading to the dogs. The atmosphere created by the presence of the dogs has been proven to be an effective technique in transforming the reading environment from fearful to fun. This is an amazing opportunity to work with man's best friend to become a child's best tutor!
