Telfair-Garcia reflects new trend at animal shelters nationwide: hiring social workers

Share
Alexis Telfair-Garcia (Photo: APA!)

Alexis Telfair-Garcia–a social worker recently hired at the Austin, TX animal shelter, Austin Pets Alive! (APA!)—recalls growing up in a family that prized community service, perhaps foreshadowing her pursuit of a career in social work.

Hallmarks of that professional passage, she recounts, include earning a BA in forensic psychology, an extended stint at Big Brothers Big Sisters NYC, and, later, in Austin, a position in the state’s public defender’s office, where her job was seeking to overturn death penalty sentences.

While holding that job for just two years, she found it grueling—emotionally and otherwise, including extensive travel—and was searching for opportunities “to find more joy in my work.”

She learned APA! was looking to hire a social worker, a step by the shelter that was a new venture and, as such, amorphous—such that, after Telfair-Garcia expressed interest, she and APA! CEO Dr. Ellen Jefferson shaped the final version of the position, before

Telfair-Garcia was hired. (She’s a longtime animal lover, getting a dog for her 5th birthday, and now, her own family lives with three rescue dogs.)

That hiring places Telfair-Garcia and APA! at the forefront of a new trend of animal shelters adding social workers to their staffs, reflecting those shelters’ awareness of the link between humans’ welfare and pets’ welfare.

Telfair-Garcia figures there are just a handful of counterparts at shelters across the country, and has spoken with them, comparing notes. She observes the key challenges she has faced in her nearly three months at APA!, and outlines some of the new programs she’s developing, including an eight-week training program for teens, providing them skills that could yield jobs in the animal field.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Endangered Florida butterfly species actually benefits from hurricanes, data shows

Listen: One of the rarest butterflies in the country, the...

pillar coral
Update: NOAA delays listing pillar coral as “endangered”

NOAA has delayed changing the status of pillar coral from...

The Scoop: Fri. Feb. 14, 2025, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

Roundup of WMNF news headlines including Ron DeSantis, Florida inmate...

FPREN cold weather
Toasty Florida will become rainy Florida; more cold fronts are on the way

On Sunday night Florida will get a cold front that...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Sunday Forum
Player position: