History

Animal Rescue of Tidewater (ART) invited all animal service providers in the region to a meeting on 9/30/01 to engage in a discussion, the ultimate goal of which was to create a plan to end euthanasia as a means of controlling animal over-population in Southside Hampton Roads within the next five years.

Joseph Riddick and Associates led that discussion and the subsequent one which occurred 11/4/01.

At the 11/4/01 meeting, the folks gathered agreed to be known as “The Animal Welfare Coalition of Hampton Roads” and embraced the mission statement… “Group committed to improving the lives of animals in Hampton Roads”. On 11/4/01, members of the newly defined group also voted unanimously to endorse ART’s application, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Coalition, to the Norfolk Foundation for a grant to fund a year long process of data gathering and community building in the area of animal service and animal welfare.

In mid-December, the Norfolk Foundation approved the grant application. It is noteworthy that the application included thirty-eight letters of support, including letters from three city managers on the southside and in the other cities, letters from different levels of city leadership; as well as letters from Best Friends and Alley Cat Allies. Suffice it say, there was universal support for this approach to bringing the service providers together, identifying the services available, the unmet needs and a plan for coordinated service deliver to address those un-met needs.

At the first meeting of AWCHR as a funded group in January 2002, those attending the meeting discussed the benefit of expanding the geographical reach of the organization beyond south of the James River. Membership adopted a geographical representation that added Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg, James City County, Yorktown and Gloucester. Efforts began to identify and recruit participation from service providers in the added communities.

During the year, the research work on behalf of the Animal Welfare Coalition will be led by Joseph Riddick and Associates and, in addition to the gathering of data, we will continually be reaching out to include all service providers in the region.

At the end of the year, we will present the State of Animal Welfare in Hampton Roads, we may produce a directory of service providers in the region (we are seeking additional funding for this), and Joseph Riddick and Associates will write a grant to a major source of funding from a national organization (yet to be identified) to bring large monies into the region to address the needs identified in our research.