Starting Out

I arrived to town in Coffman Cove last Wednesday evening, so I have been here now for just over a week. It seems crazy that only three months ago, I was interviewing for this position and making the decision to come to Southeast Alaska for the year. I had begun to look into AmeriCorps positions as I was approaching my graduation date last April and May. Although I had just spent two years working on my MSW, the prospect of getting out of school and jumping right into the workforce didn't hold the same excitement for me as it did for some of my peers. I wanted a year to settle myself after two crazy busy years of school, but I also wanted to feel productive and make some contribution with the knowledge that I had gained. AmeriCorps had piqued my interest in the past, and it seemed that now would be a good time to take a more serious look at getting involved.

For those of you who don't know what AmeriCorps is, you can learn more about the program here, but here's the gist of it from the FAQ page:

AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects over 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet community needs in education, the environment, public safety, health, and homeland security. AmeriCorps’ members serve with more than 2,000 non-profits, public agencies, and community organizations.Members serve in full or part-time positions over a 10-12 month period.

Within AmeriCorps, there are several different programs, and the one with the position that most caught my attention was the VISTA program- Volunteers in Service to America. VISTA, once a separate entity from AmeriCorps, has a different set of goals and projects that have a specific focus around capacity-building, not direct service. Again, from the AmeriCorps website:

AmeriCorps VISTA members live and serve in some of our nation’s poorest urban and rural areas. With passion, commitment, and hard work, they create or expand programs designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. Each VISTA member makes a year-long, full-time commitment to serve on a specific project at a nonprofit organization or public agency... 

VISTA members generally do not provide direct services, such as tutoring children or building homes. Instead, they focus their efforts on building the organizational, administrative, and financial capacity of organizations that fight illiteracy, improve health services, foster economic development, and otherwise assist low-income communities. VISTAs develop programs to meet a need, write grants, and recruit and train volunteers. 

When I was looking at different positions, the one that I liked best and ultimately accepted really appealed to the part of my brain that is fascinated by and passionate about macro-level work (though I do, at this point, hope to return to direct practice after the year is over).

So, without further ado, here is what I am doing for the next year!

 

It's a lot, right? But it's a lot of really good stuff. My program description is further broken down into five different areas with more specific goals, and I will be using this blog to post about my progress during my year of service. My hope is that this blog will serve several purposes: keep friends and family in-the-know about what I am doing, help keep me organized and give me a place to record my progress, be a resource for other VISTAs, and create a road map of the year for whoever comes into this work after me. (VISTA positions typically run in 3-year cycles, with a new person each year.) While I hope this will be useful, I do want to add the disclaimer that I am probably going to often be typing things up quickly and not proofreading too often- just be warned!

As I can,  I will be updating my personal blog with more fun stuff about my travels and adventures around Prince of Wales Island, and that can be found here (when I get around to posting).