Thank you so much for your interest in volunteering.
Volunteers make everything we do possible!
Please keep in mind the age guidelines for volunteers:
ARRI welcomes volunteers of many ages, including teens. Teenagers (12-17) are welcome to volunteer as a team with a parent or guardian. For everyone’s safety, we limit certain activities to older teens and adults:
- To volunteer with dogs, you must be at least 16.
- To volunteer with cats and small animals, you must be at least 14.
- To volunteer in the gardens, at events, and for other stand-alone volunteer efforts, you must be at least 12 years old.
On-site Volunteers
- Animal Rescue Rhode Island is looking for volunteers to support ARRI’s Animal Scholars program — the organization’s education arm, which is committed to bringing valuable lessons about pet responsibility, careers, native species, and many other topics to schools, libraries, after-school programs, homeschool, and adult learning groups. Our presentations contain character lessons, including kindness, respect, responsibility, and empathy.
All Animal Scholars volunteers participate in a 6-week (4 hours per week) training program where they will be provided with a volunteer training manual, which includes background information on the animal sheltering industry, many supporting documents, lesson plans for presentations, and scripts for each program. Animal Scholars volunteers must be:
- A high school graduate
- Comfortable speaking in front of a group.
- Willing to stay abreast of industry changes and statistics.
- Available at least 2 days a month (typically during the week)
- Over 21 with a driver’s license and insurance.
- Willing to provide a police force BCI check
- Classroom experience is a big plus.
To learn more about ARRI and volunteering with the Animal Scholars Program, please register here for our in-person orientation to be held on April 17, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. at ARRI (506B Curtis Corner Road, Peace Dale).
There are many other ways you can help us today:
- Apply to become a foster HERE.
- Make a contribution HERE to support ARRI’s lifesaving work.
- Donate items from our WISH LIST.
- Donate to our Pet Food Pantry, which provides pet food to families in need. Tips on holding your own pet food drive can be found HERE.
You can also help us with just a few clicks! Our ability to fulfill our mission is directly related to the number of people we’re able to reach. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram and share our posts.
Want to subscribe to ARRI’s emails? Please click the button below.
Become an ARRI 2025 Volunteer Event Ambassador
A volunteer ambassador assists with event and fundraising activities, such as hosting a table at community events, Beach Bash – May 30th, Pawpalooza Events, Bark on the Beach: September 14th, and more.
We’ll be holding two informational sessions regarding becoming an event ambassador on Tuesday, 4/22nd, at 4:00 p.m. and Wednesday, 4/23, at 8:30 a.m. Both sessions are via Zoom.
To learn more, please register for either session HERE.
After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing details about joining the meeting.
If you can’t join us via ZOOM, but would still like to volunteer, there is place on the form to let me know that.
Thank you in advance for your interest in helping Animal Rescue Rhode Island! Questions? Please email Jeanine, jconrady@animalrescueri.org
On behalf of the animals in our care, THANK YOU!