Views from VISTAs: Updates from June 2019

AmeriCorps’ Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) work to alleviate poverty by providing indirect service to their communities. Our afterschool VISTAs and the work they do are essential to the expansion of afterschool access for the children who need it most, especially in the fields of STEM, child nutrition, youth mentoring, and program sustainability.

Here’s what a few of our VISTAs involved have been up to in June!

Facilitating collaboration between key stakeholders in STEM

Ray Nobles-Decadiz, a STEM Ecosystem VISTA at the San Diego STEM Ecosystem, supported opportunities for engagement between leaders and stakeholders in STEM. His site held their June Collab Lab at the South County Regional Education Center in National City.

“Collab Labs are essentially large-scale meetings that allow all Ecosystem partners, across different Working Groups and Community Network initiatives, to meet and discuss the progress that has been made within the Ecosystem, and also to generate new ideas moving forward,” Ray explained. This meeting incorporated multiple learning and networking opportunities to align with their theme of “relationships and collaboration.”

In addition to the June Collab Lab, Ray’s site focused on engagement between stakeholders and the community. The Early Childhood STEM Working Group developed resources, including a summer reading list and an Early Childhood STEM activity sheet, that were used at the Summer Reading kick-off event held in the Southeastern San Diego neighborhood. His site’s Environmental Working Group hosted a “Community Engagement” workshop, which included approaches adapted from the North American Association for Environmental Education’s Community Engagement Guidelines.

Connecting national service members in Albuquerque, N.M.

Our eight AmeriCorps VISTA members serving at Statewide Afterschool Networks gathered in Albuquerque, N.M. during June 25 to 26 for a professional development training. In addition to the in-person trainings provided by AmeriCorps, the Afterschool Alliance sponsors trainings throughout the year to allow the opportunity for our VISTA members, working specifically on afterschool-related projects, to network and learn from each other. This training included a presentation from our two VISTA members serving at the New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network (NMOST) and May Sagbakken, executive director of NMOST, about the landscape of New Mexico—particularly, the challenges that afterschool programs face and available supports, the different STEM and meals accessibility initiatives led by NMOST, and the demographic breakdown of the state.

In addition, VISTAs attended a site visit at the Mesa Verde Community Center, where VISTAs toured the site and were able to speak with the Community Creation Center Supervisor to learn about the types of afterschool and summer programming they provide to students, and how they are able to make these opportunities accessible.

Ultimately, VISTAs were able to network with each other and learn more about strategies to prepare for their post-service endeavors, ways to practice self-care during service, and methods for identifying strengths and areas of growth.

Inspiring efforts to alleviate poverty and expand access to afterschool – and its benefits – are happening every day. Join the mission! Learn more about the AmeriCorps afterschool VISTAs and job openings near you.