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CITY OF SOUTH BEND 1 OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> so far this year,which ensures that more animals are up to date on their rabies vaccinations,which
<br /> is State law. And so far, year to date, we're averaging about a ninety percent (90%) live release
<br /> rate, which means that once you attain that and maintain it, you are considered a no-kill shelter.
<br /> So, we are continuing to strive towards that.
<br /> Ms. Skibins stated,For Q3 and Q4,we're going to continue to fine tune the policies and procedures
<br /> for RSVP.With any new program,you're going to have hiccups and hurdles,and we are navigating
<br /> those right now, and again, continue to fine tune the program. RSVP letters will be translated into
<br /> Spanish. College students are helping with this. We're just about finished. Our inspectors met with
<br /> college students doing an internship with the West Side Educational Ecosystem. There's the goal
<br /> of building relationships with community members so that they have the resources to identify and
<br /> advocate for themselves. So,there's this young lady who we gave her the information and said this
<br /> is what we need done. It'd be great if you could translate this to Spanish for us.And I'm not joking,
<br /> like two (2) days later, it looked perfect. So, sometime soon, all of our letters that will be going
<br /> out for the RSVP program,on one(1)side,will have the Spanish version as well. So,we definitely
<br /> think that is a great goal for us, and we're going to continue to move forward with hopefully our
<br /> other letters and cards that are sent out. We're going to continue to build partnerships with the
<br /> community. We have an amazing partnership with St. Vincent de Paul. As you know,they help us
<br /> out when we have to condemn a property and tenants have no place to go. So, St. Vincent de Paul
<br /> has been amazing with that. We have an informal relationship with the Notre Dame Law Clinic as
<br /> well. So, if our inspectors see people who are suffering in a bad situation, and we feel that maybe
<br /> they're being taken advantage of, we refer them informally to Notre Dame Legal Clinic. Judith
<br /> Fox and her group have been absolutely amazing with that. And, Builders of Hope. Builders of
<br /> Hope,they reached out to me because they took part in one(1)of our Code Enforcement Hearings,
<br /> and their words were basically that they like South Bend Code Enforcement because it seems like
<br /> we really care about the people. The Code Enforcement Hearings can be very scary, and they
<br /> witnessed that we try to make it not so scary for the people who are called in for the Code
<br /> Enforcement Hearings. And because of that,we have a relationship with them now where they are
<br /> actively helping repair about four (4) or five (5) houses in the City of South Bend because these
<br /> are people that we've identified for them that truly have no other means, no other resources, no
<br /> other family or friends who can help them make these repairs. So, the groups that I've mentioned,
<br /> St. Vincent de Paul, Notre Dame Legal Clinic, and Builders of Hope, those are groups that we
<br /> meet with on a regular basis so that we can make sure that we are fine tuning this process and
<br /> getting people the help that they need.
<br /> Ms. Gobel stated, Some of the goals for Animal Care and Control, we are still continually,
<br /> steadfastly working on the Animal Control Ordinance. We did file paperwork for the rebranding
<br /> of the shelter, which we hope will pass. The goal of that is to take the control portion out of our
<br /> name and make it more of a resource center because that's essentially what we are. We are a
<br /> resource for our community members for their animals. We work with many different agencies
<br /> throughout the City and in the county as far as resources for them. But we will continue to work
<br /> on the ordinance. We will still seek public input from the Animal Control Commission, and as
<br /> well as any stakeholders in the community to ensure that we have one (1) of the strongest animal
<br /> welfare ordinances in the State, if not the nation. Our goal is to maintain that ninety percent(90%)
<br /> live release rate,which is difficult as our intake numbers continue to rise.But in working hopefully
<br /> with more specials with our adoptions and working with more rescues within the area and out of
<br /> State,we transport animals as far as Wisconsin just to get them out of the shelter to reach this no-
<br /> kill status. So, it's a pretty hefty goal for the remainder of the year. One (1) of the other things is
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