Our Mission

Community Veterinary Outreach (CVO) is a registered charity that aims to improve the health of homeless individuals and their pets through a “one health” model of care. By offering human health services and health education alongside preventative veterinary care, CVO seeks to improve access to veterinary and human health resources for an at-risk population, and leverage the human-animal bond to increase human health resource uptake.

Although we provide pro-bono veterinary care, we are not solely an animal welfare organization. Our mandate is to improve the health and welfare of the client by providing health services and community connections that matter to them.

Our Mandate

Community Veterinary Outreach’s mandate is to:

• Improve the health and welfare of both animals and people;
• Create multilateral collaborative partnerships with community organizations;
• Contribute to the scientific knowledge base on social issues involving animals;
• And develop program models that are reproducible in other communities.

Check out our video below- Mike and Milo’s story

• Servant leadership: we are here to listen and serve the communities who request that we partner with them (e.g., we do not enter communities where we are not requested to be there).
• Inclusion: we believe in lowering barriers to accessing veterinary care as much as we can (e.g., we provide no cost veterinary care, and lower barriers to accessing human health services by co-locating them at our clinics)
• Meeting our clients where they are: our clients are the experts in their own experience, and we partner with them to provide veterinary expertise to help them make informed decisions and their pets.
• Value of human-animal bond for all people: we recognize the inherent value to both humans and animals of having a relationship together, and believe in supporting people in keeping their pets with them wherever possible.
• One Health: we believe in the power of the symbiotic relationship between humans, animals, and their environment as social determinants of overall health.  Through our work, we seek to improve the health of both the people and animals they love, and their environments.  (e.g., we provide human health services at all of our One Health clinics, alongside our veterinary care.  We also often provide access to services such as housing services to improve access to housing for our clients).

We offer a relaxed and caring environment to work in, and we care deeply about supporting homeless communities in finding care in a low barrier way.  We operate with a servant leadership model, and believe deeply in “nothing for us, without us,” meaning that meeting the needs of the communities we serve is a commitment to partnership.  We commit to work with and support our clients in a way they want to be served, with services that are valuable to them.

Our organization offers an environment that seeks to educate students and other professionals on accessible care and One Health outreach work.

• Values alignment
• Attention to detail
• Care for the whole person and team

We offer flexible hours as we work across multiple time zones.  We know our deadlines well in advance and are able to provide good advance notice to support flexible working.

Being a working parent is normalized in our organization, and children and pets are frequent and welcome parts of Zoom calls, board meetings, and meetings.  We believe that in order to do One Health outreach work, we must be operating from a place of wholeness.

What does this look like in action?

• We check in with each other to know how we are “really” doing.
• We will pause, discuss, and work through issues  if our team needs to during a meeting
• Taking care of yourself and your family is important to us because we care about you and we know you cannot serve in outreach work without considering what is going on outside of work.  If someone needs to take a break or down regulate hours, we can accommodate.
• Pre-briefing in advance of a clinic to ensure everyone is on the same page about values, roles, and how we serve.

Hours are flexible, and can be determined by the individual for he most part.  We operate across multiple time zones, and many of our volunteers and directors have full time jobs, so evening meetings may take place, allowing individuals to work around other commitments.

Much of our work is done asynchronously, allowing flexibility.

Our organization is dedicated to reducing barriers to accessing veterinary and human health services in the communities where we serve.

We meet virtually, use cloud based software and minimize paper use.