April 22, 2024
Here’s your chance to get to know Allison Gamble, a dedicated CAA volunteer. Allison discovered us at the 2023 banquet, where she was captivated by our mission to end factory farming. The warm, accepting community also impressed her immediately, prompting her to get involved.
Volunteer roles and contributions
Allison has taken on a couple of significant volunteer assignments over the past 10 months. She served on the organizing committees for the 2023 Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge and the 2024 CAA Banquet. She was drawn to these positions because she knew her professional skills could be valuable contributions. She also appreciated the opportunities to connect with like-minded volunteers.
What Allison loves about volunteering
What Allison loves most about volunteering is the connections she’s made with people who share her compassion. She’s even forged meaningful friendships that extend beyond CAA events. In her words: “It’s wonderful to know there are so many caring people in the community.”
Life beyond CAA: Allison’s interests
Outside of her CAA activities, Allison enjoys spending time at home with her family. Whether it’s exercising, reading, watching Netflix, or tackling challenging jigsaw puzzles (they just finished a 1500-piece one!), she finds joy in simple pleasures.
Inspiration for a plant-based lifestyle
Allison believes in reducing suffering wherever possible. She values that eating plant-based is a way to make a difference that is within her control. Her favorite restaurant, India Masala, serves a vegan tofu kadai that she finds delightful. As for recipes, Allison opts for simplicity. She often throws together quick-and-easy veggie tacos with roasted vegetables, avocado, corn tortillas, and salsa.
The spirit of compassion and community
Allison Gamble embodies the spirit of compassion and community through her dedication to CAA. Her story reminds us of the power of individual actions in creating a more caring world. Join us in celebrating advocates like Allison who inspire us to embrace kindness and take action for animals. Together, we can make a difference!
The mutual benefits of volunteering for CAA
Volunteers are key to everything we do. They help us to accomplish far more than we can do with our small staff and amplify our impact for animals. In 2023, our staff engaged over 260 volunteers, contributing more than 740 hours, across 96 different activities — a savings of over $12,000 if we had hired them. Learn more about volunteer impact every year in our annual reports.
Equally important is that the volunteers themself benefit from enhanced skills in advocacy and leadership as well as a sense of community. This fits with our theory of change which includes the following cyclical steps: increasing awareness, building community, empowering advocates, and creating change. Volunteering touches on each of these areas.
See all volunteer opportunities here.
CAA’s Theory of Change
Our theory of change emphasizes a welcoming approach, which is recognized as most effective at creating change and models the empathy we want to promote.
The theory explains how we achieve our mission to encourage people to embrace their empathy for animals and move toward a plant-based diet. It also supports our vision of a world where all animals, human and nonhuman, can thrive.
This change theory reflects how we grow our movement. Through our CAA programs, events, and activities, we facilitate a cyclical process of increasing awareness, building community, empowering advocates, and creating change. This process focuses on both individual and institutional change.
What kind of change do we create? Our programs reduce consumption of animal products and improve the lives of farmed animals. In addition, they benefit the well-being of all Minnesotans.
Compassionate Action for Animals’ theory of change was initially developed in 2017 with an online survey sent to key stakeholders, two town hall meetings open to the community members, and a strategic planning meeting attended by staff, core volunteers, and board members.
Get Involved and Volunteer with CAA
If you believe in our mission and our theory of change, we encourage you to get involved too. Sign up for one of our upcoming volunteer opportunities. There are so many fun events and options to choose from. Whatever your talents may be, you can find a volunteer opportunity that’s right for you — from photography to cooking and serving food, helping with setup and cleanup at events, greeting guests, and so much more. We thank you for all the ways that you speak up for animals and help our community!