In honor of Americorps Week (May 9-16), I invite you all to share your experience as a VISTA, and to partake in collectively celebrating our impact!
In 2008, AmeriCorps members served over 4,000 nonprofit and community based organizations. During that time, AmeriCorps members mobilized over 2 million volunteers – that’s the equivalent of the entire state of Hawaii donating their time to invest in their community.
As a VISTA Fellow for the Taproot Foundation, I am afforded the opportunity to celebrate and promote the impact of strategic volunteerism at nonprofits every day. The VISTA program asks over 6,000 citizens a year to donate time and skills to build the capacity of nonprofits fighting issues of poverty. The opportunity for impact is easy to forget when you're eating Ramen 3 times a day, but let me remind you of the very real impact we make: in 2007, 110 community volunteers per VISTA were mobilized, generating in 74 million hours served by volunteers. An average VISTA will raise at least $25,000 in cash or in-kind resources for their sponsor during their service. And to top it off, VISTAs have played a key role in establishing some of the best-known anti-poverty programs and nonprofits, including Head Start, Upward Bound, and the credit union system. Next time you're debating between the beef or chicken Ramen, remind yourself of your significant role in improving the nonprofit sector.
Why, exactly, do nonprofits matter? The entire nonprofit sector accounts for 8% of wages paid in the US and 5% of the national GDP, with over $2 trillion in assets. If the sector were a country, it would have the seventh largest economy in the world. This small ‘country’ of nonprofits is actively improving the quality of life for people across the U.S., delivering much needed services, improving government policies, solving our environmental challenges, nurturing arts and culture, and engaging people in the communities in which they live. This is a story we’re really just beginning to tell, and at the start of any good narrative, the players should be introduced.
Who are you? Why are you doing AmeriCorps VISTA? What have you accomplished or learned during your service? As AmeriCorps and public service take the national spotlight, let’s create a time capsule capturing what it means to be a full-time volunteer today. If you are a VISTA, if you’ve been a VISTA, if you sponsor a VISTA or if a VISTA has made a difference in your life, please share something: a story, a thought, a video, a quote, a recommendation, a picture, a note of gratitude. Act as if what we do makes a difference; it does.
In 2008, AmeriCorps members served over 4,000 nonprofit and community based organizations. During that time, AmeriCorps members mobilized over 2 million volunteers – that’s the equivalent of the entire state of Hawaii donating their time to invest in their community.
As a VISTA Fellow for the Taproot Foundation, I am afforded the opportunity to celebrate and promote the impact of strategic volunteerism at nonprofits every day. The VISTA program asks over 6,000 citizens a year to donate time and skills to build the capacity of nonprofits fighting issues of poverty. The opportunity for impact is easy to forget when you're eating Ramen 3 times a day, but let me remind you of the very real impact we make: in 2007, 110 community volunteers per VISTA were mobilized, generating in 74 million hours served by volunteers. An average VISTA will raise at least $25,000 in cash or in-kind resources for their sponsor during their service. And to top it off, VISTAs have played a key role in establishing some of the best-known anti-poverty programs and nonprofits, including Head Start, Upward Bound, and the credit union system. Next time you're debating between the beef or chicken Ramen, remind yourself of your significant role in improving the nonprofit sector.
Why, exactly, do nonprofits matter? The entire nonprofit sector accounts for 8% of wages paid in the US and 5% of the national GDP, with over $2 trillion in assets. If the sector were a country, it would have the seventh largest economy in the world. This small ‘country’ of nonprofits is actively improving the quality of life for people across the U.S., delivering much needed services, improving government policies, solving our environmental challenges, nurturing arts and culture, and engaging people in the communities in which they live. This is a story we’re really just beginning to tell, and at the start of any good narrative, the players should be introduced.
Who are you? Why are you doing AmeriCorps VISTA? What have you accomplished or learned during your service? As AmeriCorps and public service take the national spotlight, let’s create a time capsule capturing what it means to be a full-time volunteer today. If you are a VISTA, if you’ve been a VISTA, if you sponsor a VISTA or if a VISTA has made a difference in your life, please share something: a story, a thought, a video, a quote, a recommendation, a picture, a note of gratitude. Act as if what we do makes a difference; it does.
