Advancing Empathy Grant Program Toolkits

Woodland Park Zoo’s Advancing Empathy (AE) Initiative, launched in 2019, supports AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums in fostering empathy for wildlife. The AE Grant Program funds projects across Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin and helps organizations plan, build, and expand practices that create lasting impacts on empathy-based programming. Grant recipients share outcomes, best practices, and resources with the ACE for Wildlife™ Network, fostering global collaboration.

To make the  grant-funded resources developed by all projects more accessible, the AE team is creating toolkits organized around 10 themes including:

• Animal ambassadors
• Construction
• On-site interpretation
• Animal care play spaces & young learners
• Diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion
• Educational programs & partnerships
• Staff and volunteers
• Animal husbandry
• Long term planning
• Signage

The toolkits include AE grants funded in the 2020 grant pilot program and all current, and eventually future rounds.