It's been the most rewarding experience, my life the most fulfilling,
you can also be frustrating when you're sort of on a rollercoaster, there's all kinds of ups and downs,
but it's the most valuable experience I've ever had.
I just finished up my first year as a VISTA volunteer and I wouldn't trade that year for anything,
it has given me such a new outlook on life and what I want to do with my life.
(Inaudible) here, and to see us get service because you're very happy to help that community.
The one thing VISTA gives you is the opportunity to sort of to say test your ways.
Just to see what you're made of, what you are able to accomplish.
I believe in VISTA as a program, I believe in people giving in volunteering and full-time volunteering,
not just part-time volunteering and after college that's the perfect time to do it.
When our VISTA volunteers leave here they either move on to professional opportunities, go to graduate school,
or do any variety of things, they are so empowered that they feel like they could rip their weight in wildcats.
Throughout America thousands of very special people are devoting a year of their lives
in an effort to address the problems of poverty.
Quietly and effectively they help communities find practical solutions to those problems, they are VISTA volunteers.
VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, is part of ACTION, the federal domestic volunteer agency.
Since it's creation in 1964, more than 100,000 men and women have served as VISTA volunteers.
VISTA is a full-time, year long committment on the part of men and women 18 years of age or older.
After selection, volunteers are trained and assigned to state or local public agencies,
or private non-profit organizations, they live and serve in their own communities
or wherever they are needed within the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
VISTA volunteers share their skills and experience in many fields, such as economic development, literacy,
neighborhood revitalization and shelter for homeless people.
At the foundation for the homeless, for example,
VISTA volunteer Carrie Chapman (sp) mobilizes resources within the community
to arrange multiple services for homeless people.
We've had a wonderful experience with the VISTA volunteers that we've recruited
to work with Foundation for the Homeless, Carrie has been particularly good to have here in the office with me,
we actually share an office.
She's very talented, very bright, energetic and very sincere in her interest in helping people out
and improving our society as a whole.
I've learned a lot from Grace and she's really active as a mentor for me.
I've learned a lot about professionalism and I've learned to be more confident in myself,
which I really appreciate from her.
And I've also learned how to communicate much better and that's also been extremely beneficial.
Here in Austin, we've just spent a year working on something called The Austin Collation to End Homelessness
and we knew that homeless people had to be part of the whole process,
had to be part of alleviating their own situation and working themselves back in to society.
Carrie was able to help people to understand how necessary that is and to accept that.
Many homeless men don't have a real sense of community
and many volunteers that we see don't have a real connection with homeless people,
so in our programs we try to bring both groups together and to build relationships between both the homeless men
and the community volunteers
and we feel that this helps both the men feel as though they're a real part of a community
and the volunteers to feel as though they're really contributing.
And I think really community building is the mission of Foundation for the Homeless.
For Carrie Chapman VISTA provides a satisfying and rewarding year between college and graduate school.
But how does one devote a year to volunteering?
VISTA provides a living allowance during service and a stipend at the end of the assignment.
The living allowance you get every two weeks, and it's basically for food and lodging,
it's not a lot of money but it's enough to live on
and I think it provides an important lesson to VISTA volunteers about how many people in this country live.
The stipend you get at the end of you VISTA service
and it's sort of an automatic savings plan so that you have enough money to start the next adventure.
VISTA also offers medical health insurance and college loan deferment or partial loan forgiveness.
Economic development is one of VISTA's many concerns.
Economic development is what Isles Inc is all about as VISTA volunteer Peter Casavack (sp) explains it.
Isles rehabilitates houses and we rehabilitate families, we help set people up so that they can become homeowners.
In Trenton, New Jersey more than one in three residents lives in substandard housing
through the rehabilitation component of Isles Inc., local residents are earning their way in to comfortable homes.
The first part of the process is rehabilitating the houses.
The second part is preparing the participant to become a homeowner, that is a home maintenance
and repair course where they learn the physical skills necessary to fix a house.
And the third is where we actually help them obtain the mortgage.
My wife and I have been renting this house, from the city for a number of years, and the house is in bad shape
and Isles came along and we had the house and now my wife and I we are in the process of buying the house through Isles.
These houses aren't given to these people, they earn them, they work for them
and when they have them to move in to they appreciate them a lot more and take better care of them also.
(Music)
Peter graduated from the Wharton School with majors in Real Estate Finance and Entrpreneurial Management.
The one thing that I like particularly about VISTA and in the project that I'm working with,
is I'm given a lot of responsibility, I'm able to work on the design of a project, the implementation of it,
I have a responsibility to see it through.
If I were to go in to the private sector,
coming out of school what would of happened is I would have become a (inaudible)
in some large real estate development company
and wouldnt have really felt the sense of responsibility or been give an opportunity to really shine on my own.
One project that we're working on right now is called The We Street Housing Project
and it involves 46 units of low income housing
and what's been a great experience for me is I've been working with an architect, working with engineers,
working with other financial packagers to put this project together.
I see a lot of what I'm doing here as being stepping stones towards what I would like to do in the future.
What I'm given the opportunity to do now is get in to that process much quicker, I meet the players, the city players,
the bankers all of these important people, important in getting these projects done.
I'm meeting them, I'm learning the process
and within a year to two years time I'll be able to do these projects on my own.
In a rural area of Arizona lack of transportation and other services especially affect low income residents.
In Pineal County, VISTA volunteers help to fulfill a variety of needs at family resource centers and local schools.
Family resource center is an excellent place to have a VISTA project,
the community identified that it had a need for the center in the first place and after a period of time,
the community takes the family resource center over, they own the project, the project becomes self-sufficient
and in the end that really is the mission of VISTA.
One of VISTA's great strengths is it's diversity.
VISTA attracts volunteers who's ages and backgrounds vary significantly.
VISTA also celebrates many cultures and ethnicities.
Literacy is primary focus for VISTA volunteers throughout the nation,
for instance, in Patterson, New Jersey VISTA volunteers are mobilizing community resources
to improve local literacy skills.
VISTA volunteers to help us to plan, develop, coordinate and implement the projects,
without the VISTA volunteers we don't have projects.
Much credit for the center's success belongs to Joe Alloway Rothman (sp).
After attending graduate school in California,
Joe returned here to his hometown to accept a role as a VISTA volunteer at the Patterson Free Public Library.
Joe is a VISTA volunteer in charge of (inaudible) program, he's extremely devoted to his assignment,
he is always the first one to come to the library to open the door for the program and the last one out,
the library opens from 9:00 to 8:00.
And everyone in the library loves him.
What the library has done, is it's set our whole literacy program because there is a need,
they started out as a basic need project, we brought in VISTAs to augment the services they were already providing,
that meant including English as a second language,
because there was a growing immigrant population impact from Latin America, Asia's and the Arab countries.
And now (inaudible) bring these two teams here.
Another component is family leaders as mothers
and fathers in conjunction with their kids teaching with the parents teaching their kids how to read
and hopefully the parents improving their own skills.
And we also included the computer system literacy program here and we've also branched out
and networked with other agencies who are interested in setting up a literacy program
and we are providing the training, this is a great opportunity to see what interests you, what your strengths are,
what your weaknesses are, it's a bleeder between the college and whatever, whether it's graduate school
or the professional world and it's also an opportunity to give of your time and your expertise and your abilities
and sharing with the community.
I would recommend VISTA to people just coming out of college,
I think it gives you a work experience that you are not going to get in a typical entry level job.
I think you are going to feel really a part of a community
and that you're going to feel as though you leave something behind which I think is a really terrific feeling.
I enjoyed being a VISTA volunteer because I felt that I really was doing a great service,
not only to a large number of people, but also to the nation.
One of the reasons I joined VISTA was to see what direction I wanted to take in my career
and it has definitely shown me what I want to do and what I don't want to do.
VISTA can be a program for anyone, if they're willing to throw themselves into an environment,
be open to new experiences and work extremely hard at learning about the community that you are in,
learning the needs of that community and applying creative approaches to bettering the community that you're in.
Personally, I love the interaction, I love the chance to help other people help themselves,
which is what VISTA is all about. 135 00:12:44,000 It will change your life for the rest of your life.