In the last two years I often found myself in a space and time where I was looking for some comfort and wondered how I could replenish myself. Who or what could inspire me and help me get back in touch with myself? At times, it was a nature walk or yoga, sometimes it was...
Category: Featured
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Spotlight on New Board Member, Ashley Ihrke
How did you initially become involved with IWRC and why did you choose to become involved on a board level? I started volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation center in early 2017 and became a staff member shortly before going back to graduate school that same year. Once I became a staff member, I did more...
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Spotlight on New Board Member, Lindsay Jones
Please share an early/childhood experience that was pivotal to your personal relationship to wildlife. From my earliest memories, I have always felt a close connection with all animals. As a young child, I was always bringing home stray animals and those in need of care, much to the dismay of my family. I started attending...
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It’s Mental Health Awareness Month
Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month? We here at the IWRC have recently put forth a few resources promoting mental health in wildlife rehabilitation, such as our blog post on Self-Caring During COVID-19 and our Going Home Checklist. As we can all imagine, due to the emotion, long hours, and stress...
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A New Generation of IWRC Online Classes Coming Soon
Online learning is increasingly viewed as a valuable platform that offers tools not available in a traditional classroom setting. The IWRC strives to make our courses as accessible as possible, while constantly improving their quality. Throughout the remainder of 2020, we will be releasing new and revamped online courses that take advantage of the technological...
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Happy Volunteer Appreciation Week!
We have them, we know them, we love them, and most of us even are them… Volunteers make up the lifeblood of our wildlife rehab operations. Without them? Well… we don’t even want to go there. They help us with anything and everything from cleaning to caring for our patients to medical procedures. They even help with...
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Wildlife Rehabilitators Operational Guidance for COVID-19
UPDATE 6/8/2020 Joint Statement on Wildlife Rehabiliation during COVID-19 from NWRA and IWRC The IWRC and our partners have gathered some advice for wildlife rehabilitation operations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is fluid, and our responses must be agile to align. We will work to update this post as additional guidance...
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Australia
There are no words in any human vocabulary to describe the unimaginable horror as Australia burns. There are emotions, deep-stabbing pains of grief, voids and the vacancy of loss, infinite vacuum of pain, but no words. Not one living thing consumed by this hell brought on by human greed and antipathy deserves this fate. I...
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Promote mental health in the work (volunteer) place
In recent years, Lynn Miller, Sue Wylie, and I have written reminders to take time for self care in IWRC’s newsletters. After discussing the recent instances of suicide with a colleague, it occurred to me that IWRC is well placed to do more to speak up for the mental health of wildlife rehabilitators. Over the...