Chapter 1: Background & Purpose
History and Introduction
Authorized originally in 1964 by the Economic Opportunity Act, the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program provides full-time volunteers to support the efforts of nonprofit organizations and public agencies working to fight poverty in low-income communities. Through the years, more than 140,000 individuals have served in VISTA on thousands of local projects, committing at least one year of full-time service to poor communities in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
In July 1971, the VISTA program was transferred from the Office of Economic Opportunity to ACTION, a newly created federal volunteer agency. Other volunteer programs administered by ACTION included the Foster Grandparent Program, RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program), and the Senior Companion Program. With the enactment of the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service was established, and all ACTION programs were transferred to the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Corporation oversees a wide range of national service initiatives, including Senior Corps, Learn and Serve, and AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs that annually engages more than 70,000 Americans in intensive service to meet critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment. In 1994, VISTA joined this network and became AmeriCorps*VISTA.The purpose of VISTA, as authorized in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act (DVSA) of 1973, as amended, is:
To strengthen and supplement efforts to eliminate and alleviate poverty ... in the United States by encouraging and enabling persons from all walks of life, all geographic areas, and all age groups, including low-income individuals ... to perform meaningful and constructive volunteer service in agencies, institutions, and situations where the application of human talent and dedication may assist in the solution of poverty and poverty related problems.
The Domestic Volunteer Service Act describes three specific objectives of the program to achieve this purpose:- To strengthen local agencies and organizations
to carry out the purpose of the program
- To encourage volunteer service at the local level
- To generate the commitment of private sector resources
The AmeriCorps*VISTA program endorses three basic assumptions:
- Private citizens can contribute on a voluntary basis to meet the challenges confronting low-income communities.
- The skills and energies of AmeriCorps*VISTA members are used most effectively when the members live and work in the low-income communities they serve.
- The full-time personal involvement of AmeriCorps*VISTA members brings an added dimension to local public and private nonprofit organizations that work to develop lasting solutions to the problems of low-income communities.
Overview of Roles
Although AmeriCorps*VISTA is a national program that provides full-time members to organizations whose missions are congruent with AmeriCorps*VISTA's mission, it is not a self-contained or independent social action program. AmeriCorps*VISTA achieves its mission by assigning members to sponsoring organizations to expand the ability of those organizations to fight poverty. AmeriCorps*VISTA members mobilize community resources, engage individuals in local community service, and increase the capacity of organizations to manage effective anti-poverty programs. It is crucial to the concept of local self-reliance that sponsoring organizations plan for the eventual phase out of AmeriCorps*VISTA members and for the absorption of their functions by other facets of the organization or community.ROLE oF SPONSORING ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY, AND AMERICORPS*VISTA MEMBER
Those who designed VISTA envisioned that the people of the communities to be served by AmeriCorps*VISTA members, to the maximum extent practicable, would participate in planning, developing, and implementing programs. Further, AmeriCorps*VISTA, in coordination with our Corporation State Offices and our sponsoring organizations, including the members assigned to them, aims to ensure our service partners - our sponsors, our service beneficiaries, and our indirect community contacts - meaningfully participate in our projects. For more than 40 years of service, the types of projects, the means and levels of participation, and the communities themselves have varied greatly, and will continue to change into the future. The principles of collaborative, grassroots, and sustainable development, however, have not and will not change. They are at the heart of AmeriCorps*VISTA's anti-poverty mission.Given the range of projects and sponsoring organizations, and the diversity of AmeriCorps*VISTA members and the communities in which they serve, it is impossible to describe the relationships and dynamics between service partners - organizations, AmeriCorps*VISTA members, and community members - without acknowledging the numerous designs. Each project each year is unique. There are, however, general program strategies and objectives common to AmeriCorps*VISTA service.
ROLE OF SPONSORING ORGANIZATION
AmeriCorps*VISTA members serve under the auspices of a sponsoring organization (often referred to as an AmeriCorps*VISTA sponsor). A sponsoring organization may be a federal, state, or local government agency; a government of an Indian nation; or a private non-profit organization that is committed to creating solutions to problems affecting low-income communities. The organization in turn partners both with the low-income communities it serves by mission or project design and with AmeriCorps*VISTA.
The sponsoring organization is responsible for developing a project plan that incorporates the use of AmeriCorps*VISTA members to build long-term solutions to poverty-related issues within a local community. The project must achieve the following:
Engage residents of the low-income community to ensure that it is responsive and relevant to the low-income residents served
Leverage community resources (including part-time community volunteers) from public and private sectors
Expand the capacity of the community and organization to sustain the project when AmeriCorps*VISTA members finish their terms of service
The sponsoring organization manages AmeriCorps*VISTA resources - grant money and the members themselves - and provides the support necessary to achieve project goals. In some cases, the sponsoring organization shares the cost of AmeriCorps*VISTA members by committing to pay all or part of their members' living allowances.
In direct support of AmeriCorps*VISTA members, in addition to the project plan, the sponsoring organization provides a member assignment description, a kind of work plan, outlining the tasks a member will carry out in a service year. Moreover, within the capacities of the organization, the sponsor mentors, coaches, and offers
development opportunities to promote the professional growth of members.
ROLE OF COMMUNITY
Community, as distinguished from the sponsoring organization, is far more difficult to define and delimit its role. Community may be defined geographically (e.g., a neighborhood), demographically (e.g., school children), or by affinity (e.g., individuals seeking food security for the household). Given the diversity of the communities in which members serve, the role a community plays in planning, developing, and implementing programs is equally diverse. Clearly, the community offers critical support toward achieving AmeriCorps*VISTA's goal of alleviating poverty in low-income communities, yet the form of that support depends on the resources and capacities the community holds.Representatives of a community, with varying levels of input, work with a sponsoring organization to develop a project. Community needs, desires, and priorities shape the project's goals and objectives, which determine the members' assignment descriptions.
At a project implementation level, community members directly and indirectly work with AmeriCorps*VISTA members. As partners, colleagues, and neighbors, the AmeriCorps*VISTA member and the community members share and transfer information, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. This exchange is based on a mutual partnership and mutual learning for the transfer to be successful, and it is the basis of sustainable, grassroots
community development. AmeriCorps*VISTA's aim is that our community partners will assume responsibility of the project's activities.
ROLE OF AMERICORPS*VISTA MEMBER
As an AmeriCorps*VISTA member, you make a full-time, one-year commitment to alleviate poverty in a particular community. Your role in alleviating poverty in the nation is to mobilize your community's resources, increase the capacity of the low-income community to achieve its goals, and ensure that the activities you initiate or expand as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member are able to be sustained by the community when you leave.
Your Assignment
Your assignment depends on the particular issue(s) being addressed by the project to which you are assigned. A member assignment description indicates the nature of your activities and duties, and describes how and when you are to accomplish them. The project plan and assignment description should be discussed when you and the sponsor are interviewing each other. Additionally, you should bring a copy of the assignment description to Pre-Service Orientation, a training introducing the AmeriCorps*VISTA program to member candidates. Without the assignment description, the impact of Pre-Service Orientation may bediminshed, and you will be less than adequately prepared to begin service.
AmeriCorps*VISTA members focus on building the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities as a whole to set and attain their goals and respond to problems confronting communities in need. You serve as a catalyst and change agent, assisting in creating or expanding programs and mobilizing community resources.
A member assignment does not include the delivery of individual services to a limited number of clients, that is, "direct service," or activities more appropriately performed by the sponsoring organization's administrative support staff.
In general, an AmeriCorps*VISTA member may not assume, accept, or retain positions of leadership, or become identified with a particular faction or group, or with a partisan or nonpartisan political group in the communities in which he/she serves. The assumption of such positions by a member would hinder the community's ability to develop its own leadership capacity.
Supervision
Each AmeriCorps*VISTA member has a supervisor responsible for managing the project. The member receives direction and guidance from a supervisor who works for the sponsoring organization, rather than the Corporation State Office or AmeriCorps*VISTA Headquarters. An AmeriCorps*VISTA member is not an employee of the sponsoring organization. An AmeriCorps*VISTA member is a federal resource on loan to a local organization. A member is also not an employee of the Corporation for National and Community Service or AmeriCorps*VISTA, except for very specific purposes (see "Unemployment Compensation" section in Chapter 14 ) outlined in the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973.Rules and Restrictions
During a term of service, members live at the economic level of the people they serve. The member living allowance is at the poverty level. A member may not receive any additional monetary compensation beyond the standard allowances for services rendered as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member. A member also may not accept any benefit from the sponsoring organization or the community served that relates to the AmeriCorps*VISTA assignment without approval from the Corporation State Office where the AmeriCorps*VISTA member is assigned. Members are expected to serve the community, not themselves.Members remain available for service, without regard to regular working hours, at all times during the member's service, except for periods of approved leave. As a result, employment is not permitted during AmeriCorps*VISTA service, and you may not be absent from the project without approval from the sponsoring organization or supervisor. With the approval of the Corporation State Office, you may be involved in personal activities and creative pursuits, as long as these activities do not interfere with your service and hours of work.
Commitment to Service
As an AmeriCorps*VISTA member, you are expected to honor your pledge to serve on a full-time basis for one year (in addition to time spent in Pre-Service Orientation). In certain circumstances, a member may be invited to extend or reenroll in service beyond one year, for a period not to exceed three years. You, as an AmeriCorps*VISTA member, are not entitled to an extension or reenrollment of your service beyond your first year. You are encouraged, however, to pursue a second year of service with your initial project or within another area of interest.
ROLE OF AMERICORPS*VISTA LEADER
AmeriCorps*VISTA Leaders are assigned to some larger projects or regions to assist sponsoring organizations and members in achieving program objectives and developing new project activities and sources of community support.
AmeriCorps*VISTA Leaders are former AmeriCorps*VISTA or AmeriCorps members or Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who successfully completed a term of full-time service and demonstrated exemplary skills and leadership in community service. (The Peace Corps is the federal agency that sends volunteers to live and work in developing countries.)
AmeriCorps*VISTA Leaders are not permitted to perform administrative or supervisory functions for their sponsoring organizations or Corporation State Offices. Hence, they do not supervise other AmeriCorps*VISTA members. They provide support and coordination for members to increase the impact of the project. In return for filling this role, Leaders receive a minor monetary compensation. (See Chapter 10 for further details about the AmeriCorps*VISTA Leaders Program.)
ROLE OF CORPORATION STATE OFFICE
The Corporation for National and Community Service has field staff working throughout the United States. There are Corporation State Offices representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Some offices are responsible for multiple states and territories.
The role of the state office is outreach, program development, technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation in support of the Corporation's national service network, and AmeriCorps*VISTA member support. Staff members respond to technical assistance requests from potential sponsoring organizations that wish to develop proposals for AmeriCorps*VISTA projects. Staff also assist the potential sponsoring organization in refining project goals and objectives, in determining if the project is in accordance with the AmeriCorps*VISTA program mission, and in ensuring that a self-sustaining activity will be achieved within the low-income community.
The State Director approves a potential sponsoring organization's project plan and AmeriCorps*VISTA member applicants, and arranges for the member applicants to attend the Pre-Service Orientation and for supervisors to attend the Supervisors' Orientation. After members are assigned to a project, the Corporation State Office supports the sponsoring organization in providing training, professional development, and technical assistance for the members. Moreover, the state office is a resource for the sponsoring organization and the AmeriCorps*VISTA member concerning AmeriCorps*VISTA policy and procedure. Should an issue not be resolved between a supervisor and a member, the next recourse is to contact the state office.
Corporation State Office staff conduct periodic project visits and review Project Progress Reports to monitor the sponsoring organization's use of AmeriCorps*VISTA members toward achieving the project's goals and objectives.
ROLE OF AMERICORPS*VISTA HEADQUARTERS OFFICE
AmeriCorps*VISTA is headquartered in Washington, DC. This office, in consultation with regional and state offices, determines goals, policy, administrative procedures, and budgetary requirements for effective program operation.
The AmeriCorps*VISTA Headquarters Office performs the following tasks:
Monitors progress toward achieving national program goals and priorities
Allocates AmeriCorps*VISTA resources among the states
Ensures the Corporation staff and sponsoring organizations adhere to AmeriCorps*VISTA policies and procedures
Researches and shares effective program models
Develops and implements training, professional development, and technical assistance for members, Leaders, and sponsors
