Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA), now called AmeriCorps VISTA, was founded in 1964 with volunteers first serving in 1965. The program was seen as a domestic Peace Corps whose mission, according to their flyer, was and is to alleviate poverty, empower the community, build capacity and create sustainable solutions.
The Utah Campus Compact oversees the work of 13 VISTAS statewide, 4 of whom serve in Salt Lake City. These volunteers work on college campuses to support civic engagement, service learning, student organization service and community-based research.
VISTAs have been an important part of the Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center. They have established contacts and developed and implemented writing programs for the Salt Lake Metro Jail and for the Homeless Youth Resource Center. Ken Simin, AmeriCorps VISTA leader, was involved with getting the project for the Homeless Youth Resource Center started. He described it as a “free-form jazz” creative writing and self-expression session which gave the youth involved “a break from their head space.”
One project discovered that some college students were going hungry and that they did not access community services, so the VISTA established an on-campus food pantry. Other projects that VISTAs have worked on include the building capacity or establishing of community service centers on campus and developing training to help students reenter the community.
If you would like to read more about the SLCC Community Writing Center, check out this article. Please subscribe to my column using the subscribe button near the top of the page. Comments are always welcome and may be left near the bottom of the page.
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