What is it all about

{VISTA}: What is it all about?

What is the AmeriCorps*VISTA Program?

AmeriCorps*VISTA is a national service program in which volunteers live in the communities they serve, designing programs that will continue after they complete their service. Created in 1965, VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) was designed to meet the needs of underserved communities and to address and combat poverty. In 1993, AmeriCorps was created and merged with the existing VISTA program. The Corporation for National and Community Service, also created in 1993, has oversight for all AmeriCorps*VISTA programs.

What is {Ohio Campus Compact}?

Ohio Campus Compact (OCC) is the state affiliate for National Campus Compact, implementing the mission and goals of the national organization at the state level. OCC promotes community service that develops students’ citizenship skills and values, encourages collaborative partnerships between campuses and communities, and assists faculty who seek to integrate public and community engagement into their teaching and research.

What is the {OCC AmeriCorps*VISTA program}?

The Ohio Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA program was created in 1998 with six VISTAs focusing on literacy. In 2004 the program grew to 22 VISTAs on 20 member campuses assisting their colleges and universities to enhance and expand the civic engagement of students and faculty in their respective communities.

The {goals} of OCC’s VISTA Program are to:

Integrate service into faculty instruction and students’ studies, making community service and service-learning a valued element of the undergraduate experience.

Enhance students’ responsibility, citizenship, and awareness of the community while reinvigorating higher education’s concern for improving the quality of life in society.

Strengthen the impact of that service on the welfare of communities and the education of students in institutions of higher education.

The OCC AmeriCorps*VISTA program proposes to {address these communities} of need in the following ways:

• Developing and managing projects and [programs that build a campus’ capacity to utilize their resources to address poverty in their local communities.
• Developing and managing specific issue focused programs that address poverty and issues of poverty (as identified by local communities and their campus partners), such as hunger and homelessness, financial literacy, veterans issues, public health, college access and success, and children’s education.
• Assisting in securing funding for projects and program addressing issues of poverty as well as seeking funding to ensure the sustainability of these projects.

What do OCC AmeriCorps*VISTAs {do}?

• Build the capacity of member campuses to establish, maintain, and strengthen partnerships in low-income communities.
• Work on integrating outreach initiatives on campus and in the community striving to create meaningful connections and partnerships between the campus and local organizations and agencies to meet and address local needs of poverty alleviation.
• Collaborate with other OCC AmeriCorps*VISTAs on OCC-specific projects.
• Plan and attend quarterly OCC VISTA retreats.
• Serve on community boards, write for campus newspapers and blogs, make presentations in the classrooms and the community, educate and inspire students to become advocates for social justice.
• Organize and lead alternative break trips Leave a legacy of service at the campuses and in the community where we serve.

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