Looking to strengthen your community but not sure where to start? In a recent Maddie’s^® Community Conversations call, the team from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington (AWLA) shared how breaking down silos between animal control, outreach and animal shelter services can transform the way we support both people and pets. 

Chief Animal Control Officer Jennifer Toussaint and her colleagues, Adam Jablonski and Karina Swetnam, walked us through how collaboration looks in action – like field officers connecting families to emergency veterinary grants, outreach staff providing free grooming services and team members from every department working side-by-side at community clinics and pet food distributions. 

Key takeaways: 

• Collaboration saves lives. Cross-department teamwork helps identify needs earlier and prevent crises before they happen. 

• Meet people where they are. AWLA’s community clinics bring vaccines, microchips, and wellness exams directly to neighborhood churches and community centers to reduce barriers to care. 

• Small supports, big impact. From grooming vouchers to emergency veterinary grants, even modest resources help families keep pets at home. 

• Lead with compassion. AWLA’s “resource-first” approach builds trust and strengthens the human-animal bond. 

Watch the full webcast, “Bridging Services, Strengthening Communities,” to learn how AWLA revamped its onboarding and training to unite staff across departments, how to integrate data tracking to better target community needs and creative ways to use storytelling and social media to shift public perceptions about animal control.