A New Beginning

To start things off, I think I first need to explain exactly what I’m doing this year.

As you (hopefully) are aware, last year I completed 11 months of national service with AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA Corps. This was a residential program based out of Sacramento, CA. This means that my home campus was in CA, but I traveled all over the country with members of my team working in disaster locations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This program is one of the three AmeriCorps programs. In NCCC I was paid a monthly living stipend, wore a uniform, and had all other expenses paid for (food, housing, transportation, etc.). It was a challenging 11 months, but I completed all my hours and graduated in November.

This year I am doing something completely different. AmeriCorps VISTA stands for: Volunteers in Service to America. It is a program that was created by John F. Kennedy to help reduce the amount of poverty in this country. Since 1965, over 190,000 people have served through VISTA. The program holds the ideals that members are to get as connected as possible with the community they are serving and the way they do this is by placing members in deeply impoverish areas of the country, paying members at the poverty level of that location, and encouraging community involvement through their work. Different from NCCC, I have to pay for all my own expenses while living off a monthly stipend.

VISTAs serve in all different settings and locations. For example, my roommate at orientation will be serving in Maryland as part of the AmVets Call to Service Corps, helping Veterans gain employment and get out of poverty. Also different from NCCC is the type of service VISTAs do. NCCC members do direct service. They build trails, mentor students, or in FEMA Corps directly interact with survivors and write out documentation to get reimbursement for business owners. VISTA members serve more “behind the scenes.” The way in which we reduce poverty is to build capacity between organizations, members, and the population at risk.

My job this year will be working as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the California Conservation Corps at their headquarters in Sacramento, CA. My main responsibility will be to build connections between apprenticeship programs and the CCC and to build a database of career options for members once they graduate. As you can tell, I will not be directly interacting with CCC corpsmembers. Instead, I will be staying behind the scenes maintaining relationships. I am looking forward to my year here with the CCC and living in Sacramento. I think it will be challenging and I can already tell that it is going to open a lot of doors for me. As we go further into this year, I will attempt ot give more background and structural information concerning the CCC!

WOOHOO For National Service!!