Shelby recently joined our Inclusive Canines ERG as their newest co-lead!
Ok, the most important one. Tell us about your dogs!
Dinky (Chihuahua, 7 years) and Dandy (English Mastiff, 7 months) are the loves of my life and the biggest pains in my butt! They were the same size for, like, a week. We foster-failed Dinky. Dandy was our New Year’s surprise when we found him with a rescue based out of Detroit.
What ERG are you a part of?
I am the new co-lead of Inclusive Canines! I also oversee all 6 of our ERGs and write the company blogs, including this one ;)
Tell us what excites you / makes you passionate about the ERG you are a part of at BARK.
Mental health and/or accessibility touches the lives of everyone, although, some may not take the call to action until they’re personally affected. My mom, a Doctor of Speech-Language Pathology, devoted her career in special education particularly to the deaf and blind communities. I want to say she “forced” me into allyship from the very beginning but I’m not mad about it ;)
Inclusive Canines went through some major changes this past year. We actually operated as two separate ERGs; one focused on mental health, the other one focused on accessibility. We recently combined into Inclusive Canines and it’s super exciting. The sky is the limit in how we can serve our community!
What are some ways others can get involved in supporting the community?
Get to know the people and resources supporting folks with disabilities in your community. Not only could it help someone, but it could also help you one day. Disabilities can be physical, mental, and if you don’t currently have a disability, you never know when you could… anything can change in the blink of an eye.
So what’s next for Inclusive Canines?
We’re participating in the Buddy Walk for the National Down Syndrome Society this autumn in both Columbus and New York! We’re also collaborating with BarkGood, our social impact and employee volunteer program, to volunteer with Pilot Dogs in Columbus, an agency who trains seeing eye dogs. We will continue working with our senior leaders to ensure our procedures and policies support disability inclusion and accessibility. And so much more, you’ll have to stay tuned!!
