Get to know your host, Stacy LeBaron
June 17, 2016
Welcome to the Community Cats Podcast website. I am thrilled to be launching this website where we, as a community, can help more community cats. What is a community cat you ask? Community Cats are cats that are either feral (born in the wild-outdoors), abandoned cats, or owned indoor/outdoor cats that may or may not have caretakers. Unspayed or neutered cats become the cause of severe overpopulation.
In general, it is best to have all cats spayed/neutered and to have someone caring for them. That is the ideal and I hope that this site can help you make a difference for cats in your community!
Well, how are we going to do that?
We are first starting off with a five day-a-week podcast where I get to speak with some amazing people who have been helping cats in their communities. I want to hear their stories and I hope you do, too. Many of us started out because of a cat that we found, cared for, fed or rescued. If you choose to help one kitty, it is the first step to helping so many more. After you listen to the podcast (put a review on iTunes, become a subscriber and share with your friends), I hope you will think of the community cats podcast as the place to ask questions and get help. We can support you and others in CCP, which will be able to help you! I don’t want anyone in the Community Cats field to feel alone and abandoned. We are with you 5 days-a-week, to energize and inspire you!
If you have any suggestions on who I should interview, feel free to send me an email at stacy@communitycatspodcast.com.
Feel free to make comments and please do share this with your friends and join our community on Facebook.
In addition to the podcast, we are building a Cat Academy and a Cat Colony membership program. The cat academy will have online training available to anyone at low cost. We are developing content for this area right now, so we will be organically adding programs as they develop. Our Cat Colony membership program is all about helping you. If you are a volunteer, part of an organization or run an organization and you just really want some outside support and membership, this is for you! If you have burning questions that you need help with and never seem to be able to reach out and ask those questions, we’re here! For less than the cost of a gym membership you will have access to live mastermind group conversations with others that need the same kind of support. You will get one-on-one access to me and others that I know in the field that can offer advice and you will have access to a higher level of community cat grants for your organization. You will also have access to a private facebook group so you don’t have to wait for the bi-weekly call. You can just post there for help and we are ready to respond!
How do we give back to the CCP Community?
The CCP is going to be sponsoring the Community Cats Grant program. So a portion of our profits will be distributed to the Community Cats Grant program. We also have support from the LeBaron Foundation which is kicking off CCP with a $50,000 donation to the Community Cats Grant program to get it started this year. To find out more about how you can apply for a CCG visit our info page.
Who am I?
I am Stacy LeBaron and I have been involved with helping cats for over 20 years. For 16 of those years I ran the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society (www.mrfrs.org) and the MRFRS has assisted over 100,000 cats and kittens since 1992. I started out when our budget was $45,000 a year in 1994 and built the MRFRS up to an organization with $1.5 Million in annual revenue. We have two mobile spay/neuter clinics (The Catmobile), an adoption program, monthly free clinics for feral cats, an assistance program for owned cats and a bridge program for people who need help with housing their cats for a short period of time. In the years that we built these programs and others, I have learneed a lot about managing a non-profit, fundraising, operations, etc.. As I went to conferences, I met some really interesting people with very innovative ideas on how to help community cats. I absorbed everything I could. Now it is my time to SHARE with you these great ideas so we can make a difference for community cats around the world!
Please enjoy the show! Let me know how you like it and review it on iTunes! Until next time…
