vyt voices fall 2013

Inside this issue

Justin Henry .................. 2

Robby Salorio ................ 3

Hannah Reckhow............ 4

Alex Prolman ................. 4

Julie Markarian ............... 5

Emily Johnson ................ 6

Brandy Oswald ............... 7

Marcella Houghton .......... 8

Daron Blake ................... 9

Nikita Griffin .................. 10

Ashley Piatt ................... 10

Anna Berg ..................... 11

Michelle Sayles .............. 12

Allie Pflughoeft ............... 13

Sara Dillingham ............. 14

Member Accomplishments

.................................... 15

Mark Hengstler .............. 16

Sara Pierce .................... 17

Ryan Morra .................... 18

Kate Cahalane ............... 19

Amanda Udoff ................ 19

Alaina Wermers.............. 20

Steph Olsen ................... 21

Hilary Watson ................ 22

Victoria Davis ............... 22

Caitlin Wyneken ............. 23

Ali Siegel ....................... 24

Ashton Kulesa ................ 25

Professional Development

and Trainings ................ 26

Dear Readers,

I am happy to bring you the first of three newsletters featuring the

2013-2014 Vermont Youth Tomorrow A*VISTA Program (VYT) team. VYT is an anti-poverty, national service program supporting 30 A*VISTA members at community-based organizations, schools, and municipalities

throughout Vermont.

Following orientation in August, VYT members hit the ground running and began building capacity at their organizations and in their communities. In just three months, they have organized fundraisers,

developed new programs, and connected youth with numerous opportunities. I have been fortunate enough to visit each member of

the team at their sites, and I continue to be amazed by the breadth of skills and experience they bring to their service. Their visions for the year ahead are inspiring and extensive and their enthusiasm is pro-

found. I can’t wait to see what they do this year.

In this issue, members were asked to introduce themselves and what led them to service, and to describe their vision for how their service

year will help their organizations more effectively alleviate poverty. Please take a moment to check out the accomplishments of last year’s

team as well – the numbers say it all.

In service, Anna Houston

VYT VISTA Leader Newsletter Editor

VYT VOICES

Fall 2013

Volume 12, Issue 1

Vermont Youth Tomorrow

A*VISTA Program

Alaina Wermers,

A*VISTA

City of Winooski

Community Service

Department

In college I spent a considerable

amount of time working as a

community organizer and an

advocate on issues concerning

poverty, homelessness, and

social justice. After graduating

college I wanted to use my skills

I had acquired to continue to help

others - but I was unsure of just

where I could have an impact. I

found a position with AmeriCorps

VISTA in Montana at a mental

health center. I served specifi-

cally at a drop-in center assisting

those experiencing homeless-

ness. Being immersed into a new

community, and having the op-

portunity to learn from those who

have dedicated their lives to the

war on poverty inspired me to

continue my VISTA service. See-

ing the challenges facing those in

poverty, as well as the institu-

tions that provide needed ser-

vices, also further resolved my

desire to continue in a service

capacity.

I discovered a position with

Vermont Youth Tomorrow sta-

tioned at the Vermont Coalition

to End Homelessness and Ver-

mont Affordable Housing Coali-

tion. The position I applied for

seemed like quite the opportunity

to continue working on homeless-

ness and housing issues, to de-

velop skills concerning communi-

ty outreach and communication,

and to learn about the non-profit

world in Vermont (both coalitions

combined having 90 plus organi-

zations as members). In my

short time at this VISTA position,

I can say I have not been disap-

pointed.

Being able to travel a bit across

the state of Vermont and to see

firsthand the needs facing our

service providers and state

agencies has made it apparent to

me the importance of programs

such as Vermont Youth Tomor-

row. This program has given me

the opportunity to build systems

to better improve communica-

tions between both of the coali-

tions I serve, to work on projects

such as improving the count of

youth homelessness, and to in-

crease information and access to

affordable housing.

I am very excited to continue my

year with Vermont Youth

Tomorrow and hope my service

makes a positive impact in these

tough economic times for the

most vulnerable Vermonters.

Justin Henry, VYT A*VISTA member

Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and the Vermont

Affordable Housing Coalition (Burlington, VT )

AmeriShares Each month members are given an opportunity to

plan and lead an AmeriShare presentation. Members

choose a topic of their choice and then gain

experiencing in researching, planning, and

facilitating a presentation.

This year, members have facilitated the following

presentations: managing stress through making low-

cost stress balls; making apple print cards using

gleaned apples (pictured left).

After working in the private

sector for a little over two

years and being told in April I

would be losing my job in New

York City I began to think

about what I really wanted to

do with my life. I had studied

International Relations and

Spanish in college and hadn’t

been using either since I had

finished school. This was when

I decided I wanted to serve

with AmeriCorps and do

something with some meaning.

Browsing through all of the list-

ings on the AmeriCorps website

I came across the Migrant Edu-

cation Program, part of VYT.

The program serves families

and out-of-school youth who

move throughout the state for

agricultural work with educa-

tional resources. They were

looking for a VISTA to serve as

a volunteer coordinator primar-

ily to support the Latino out-of-

school youth population. It

was the perfect fit. The position

offered me the opportunity to

use my Spanish and work with

a sector of society I had always

admired and wanted to learn

more about; it also gave me

the chance to move to

Vermont, a place I had never

been.

Now that I am a few months in

to my year of service, I have a

much better vision of what I

would like my service to look

like. As we discussed at the

PSO and continue to discuss at

VYT training, poverty is an in-

credibly complex issue with

many faces and shapes, and in

the state of Vermont the faces

of Latino migrant workers are

often hidden. My goal for this

year of service is to provide

these men, women, and youth

with educational services that

will allow them to go above and

beyond what they may believe

possible. I want to provide

these incredibly hard workers

with access to education

through dedicated volunteers

who they can develop friend-

ships with and to ensure those

friendships continue.

An aspect of poverty we some-

times do not recognize is isola-

tion. The isolation of the Latino

migrant farm worker is an as-

pect of poverty that can be

eliminated by providing a

friendly face who cannot only

give the gift of education but

also can be someone to laugh

with, talk with, play soccer

with, and bring some

semblance of normalcy into the

life of the student. Through

this we can eliminate that

isolation and bring some joy to

lives of our students who give

us so much through their hard

work.

Latino migrant workers are

such an integral part of Ver-

mont’s economy and society

that it is time for us to pay it

forward through our own hard

work and service.

Robby Salorio, VYT A*VISTA member

UVM Extension— Vermont Migrant Education Program

(Berlin, VT )

The isolation of the Latino migrant farm worker is an aspect of poverty that can be

eliminated by providing a friendly face who cannot only give the gift of education but also

can be someone to laugh with, talk with, play soccer with, and bring some semblance of

normalcy into the life of the student.

Alex Prolman and Hannah Reckhow, VYT A*VISTA members

enVision Montpelier (Montpelier, VT)

Page 7

I am Alex. I am Hannah.

We both left the warm security of infinity in

1991.

I am a catamount alumnus; my degree says things like “Community Entrepreneur” and “Food Systems” and “Ecological Agricul-

ture” but,

I am a pachyderm alumnus; my degree says things like “Cathedrals” and “Materiality” and “Green Urban

Design” but,

That is only slightly more descriptive of us than is our collection of books, or music, or

grocery bills.

I enjoy biking, baking, canning and planning.

I enjoy playing, and working, and being,

and standing

But it is our inner drives that have brought

us here.

I am motivated by a sharp sense of responsibility, justice, and the fleeting

bursts of defiant hope in a society that is by any measure on the decline.

I am motivated by the promise of a more

efficient world - of a built environment that does not block health or happiness.

And now we are VISTAs with the Montpelier

Department of Planning and Community Development.

I was drawn by Montpelier’s repute as a forward-thinking capital, and by the chance

to contribute, and by the opportunity to learn and experience what it takes to

operate a city equitably.

I was drawn by the compelling idea of combining city planning and volunteer

service to create an even more powerful tool to alleviate poverty.

We were drawn by the enVision program’s ambition, by the process of creating and following through on a hundred year plan that includes the entire community and all

its assets.

Sometimes it is like herding cats. Opinionated cats.

Cranky cats. Distracted, frustrated, silly cats.

(O feral felines, why must thou not herd

easy?)

But the process is the point: inclusive de-mocracy is hard, and messy. Still, it is the

goal.

The goal is to promote food justice, The goal is to provide access to basic

needs,

The goal is to transition from a way of life that provides much for few, to one that

provides enough for all.

To a way by which the community meets its needs through ecologically regenerative

practices

To a city that is well connected with itself and its needs

And all of Montpelier’s many voices are a part of this urgent, slow, byzantine game.

Julie Markarian, VYT A*VISTA member

Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports (Burlington, VT)

My name is Julie Markarian; I’m a Massachusetts trans-

plant living in Burlington, Vermont and serving at my dream site for the year.

Thanks to AmeriCorps VISTA, I am serving with Vermont

Adaptive Ski and Sports, a nonprofit that mirrors my be-lief in the power of play. Ver-

mont Adaptive is dedicated to empowering individuals with

all levels of physical and

cognitive abilities through sports and recreation, and over the course of my service

year, I hope to gain skills in therapeutic recreation and

non-profit capacity building, while networking and enjoying lasting friendships with our

participants, volunteers, and affiliates. The programs offered through Vermont

Adaptive aim to increase

confidence, independence,

and overall quality of life for our participants and their sup-port networks (family, friends,

etc.); we equal the playing field and allow people to get out and recreate by address-

ing and breaking down obsta-cles that have oftentimes

stood in their way. When peo-ple face financial hardships, recreating moves to the bot-

tom of the list of importance in day-to-day life, replaced by

the need to pay bills, put food on the table, and simply sur-vive. Add a disability to that

factor, and recreating becomes even more un-

attainable. Vermont Adaptive offers scholar-ships lessons

to members of the

community who cannot afford to pay

full price; we also pair

participants

up with amazing volunteers

from the community

who serve more as peers than

instructors. We work as a team to encourage in-dependence, freedom,

confidence, and happi-

ness through our fun outings,

and allow people to simply be who they are. Increasing the quality of life for all of our

participants is our mission, but this especially rings true for our participants who are

low-income. Allowing people to have a safe space to

recreate and play helps to refuel from the mental toll their hardships and struggles

have taken on them, while helping them feel a sense of

self-worth and accomplish-ment. Feelings of pride in one’s abilities raise a level of

confidence that may have

been broken down due to poverty, so helping people feel good about who they are

and what they are capable of doing is a stepping stone towards fighting the battle to

transcend or alleviate poverty. Working with participants who

have faced unimaginable hardships and who are still fighting the odds with grace,

compassion, and humor reminds me every day of the

importance of providing a means of play to every body out there!

Helping people feel good about who they are and what they are capable of doing is a

stepping stone towards fighting the battle to alleviate poverty.

Julie (far left)

and race

participants

at the Bolton

5K to benefit

VT Adaptive.

Hello! I am serving as the Farm to School

Coordinator VISTA at the Schoolhouse Learning

Center in South Burlington. I came to VISTA

service in a roundabout way: I have always

loved gardening, and I grew up helping my par-

ents with their veggie garden at our home in Or-

egon. I did a lot of service at community gar-

dens throughout middle and high school, and

when home for breaks during college. I gradu-

ated from college with a geology-chemistry de-

gree and then went to New Zealand on a vege-

table horticultural internship working on a

small, family-run vegetable farm. When I re-

turned to the U.S. and began job searching, I

started volunteering again at the community

garden in my hometown and the idea popped

into my head to look for AmeriCorps positions

related to school and community gardens. And

here I am!

My service will help my site alleviate poverty by

starting a farm to school education program that

will give preschool and elementary students the

foundation they need to make healthy eating

and food choices. The program,

“Farm, Forest, Food,” has kids en-

gaged in learning where food

comes from, how to grow and pre-

pare food into healthy meals, and

enjoying, exploring and learning

about nature. We are collabo-

rating with Bread and Butter Farm

in developing a hands-on farm to

school curriculum that hopefully

can be used as a framework for

other schools and preschools in

the area wanting to start farm

to school programs.

We are now a month in to our Farm,

Forest, Food program and it’s exciting to

see how engaged the kids are and

already how the program is prompting

them to think more about what they eat and

where it comes from. They are enjoying the

time they spend in the forest, on the farm, and

in the kitchen, and have been really enthusiastic

about our “food of the day” activity, where I

bring in a food, we talk about the food, and then

plot its origin by sticking a picture of it up on a

Vermont, U.S., or world map.

I have already heard a few stories from parents

about how their kids are changing the way they

look at food. A mother at the school came up to

me last week and told me about how she was

grocery shopping with her daughter, and in the

produce section her daughter started talking

about the energy required to transport an apple

all the way from Argentina and how it makes so

much more sense to buy local. Another parent

told me that after the first day her son’s class

was in the kitchen helping to prepare apple

sauce, her son (a notoriously picky eater and

sugar-lover) came home and wanted to make

applesauce and when it was done, ate it without

adding any sugar. I hope that these stories

continue into the year.

Emily Johnson, VYT A*VISTA member

The Schoolhouse Learning Center (South Burlington, VT)

Emily plants cover crops in the school garden with

three and four year-old preschool students.

Hi everyone, I’m Brandy Oswald, the VYT Ameri-Corps VISTA for Operation: Military Kids. I am a twenty-something University of Vermont gradu-

ate with a B.A. in French. I‘m currently a third of the way through my coursework for a Master’s

Degree in Public Administration. Hopefully, upon completion of my year of service, I will complete my MPA at the University of Vermont.

I have much experience working in the state of

Vermont. Previously, I have worked as a Legisla-

tive Intern with Vermont State Representative Kesha Ram planning fundraisers, performing cam-paign duties, drafting legislation, and more. I

have also worked as an Intern at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. At the Chamber I worked

most closely with the Legislative Assistant, the Events Coordinator, and the Tourism Department.

I decided to pursue a year of service with Ameri-Corps VISTA because I have lived in poverty my entire life. Growing up as the oldest of three chil-

dren to a young single mother, I know the strug-

gles of poverty. As a child I never knew my fami-

ly was in poverty. My mother, being the incredi-bly strong woman that she is, did a wonderful job to ensure that her children never went without (or

at least when we did, that it went unnoticed by us children). I knew that if there was any relief that I could give to struggling single mothers like my

own, and impoverished families in general, that I wanted to do all I could to give that much de-served assistance.

This is where AmeriCorps VISTA played a crucial

role. As the VISTA serving with Operation: Mili-tary Kids I hope to give military families the sup-

port that they deserve. Vermont’s military popu-

lation often goes overlooked because they are mostly National Guard members, and for the most part, are assimilated into civilian life. Without

proper access to military and community support systems these military families are more apt to fall into poverty than the “average” civilian. (I

put “average” in quotations because, well, good luck defining that word in today's crazy world!)

For the next year, I will work to build Operation: Military Kids’ capacity so that they can more

effectively support Vermont’s military families. I have already begun to push our Regional Team to explore more effective outreach methods,

re-organizing the organization’s database systems, and re-focusing the intent of the organi-

zation. I will also lend support to Operation: Mili-tary Kids’ AmeriCorps State and National Member in the form of volunteer recruitment, screening,

training, and management.

Operation: Military Kids is an amazing organiza-

tion with great potential. I will be spending the next year ensuring that the organization has all the tools needed to reach its full potential.

Brandy Oswald, VYT A*VISTA member

University of Vermont Extension 4H — Operation: Military Kids

(Burlington, VT)

Bra

nd

y a

t he

r site, O

pe

ratio

n: M

ilitary

Kid

s.

Marcella Houghton, VYT A*VISTA member

Laraway Youth and Family Services and Salvation Farms

(Johnson, VT)

Here in Johnson, I’m in thrall

with the bright late-afternoon

light and scent of just-

beginning-to-rot leaves. These

Northeastern autumns are bit-

tersweet, and since I spent

the past four school years in

nearby Middlebury, they’ll

probably always remind me of

the start of the new semester.

Last October, I stood at the

brink of my final semester of

college: unsure of my next

steps, feeling both homesick

for New York and itching to go

forth into a new location alto-

gether, and overall pretty sure

I wouldn’t be staying in Ver-

mont post-February. Yet here

I am, relishing another Ver-

mont fall with no regrets.

It was a longtime connection

to the agricultural world and a

growing interest in gleaning

that lead me to Johnson in

late April of this year to start

my position. As a teenager I

worked at a commercial herb

garden, and since then I’ve

sought summer jobs with an

agricultural thread: a teaching

farm, a New York City door-

stop-delivery CSA. In college I

signed up through Addison

County HOPE to be a volun-

teer gleaner, and the first

gleaning event at a nearby

orchard had me hooked on

the concept. There was some-

thing solid-feeling about it:

the chit-chat between volun-

teers who’d never before met

each other, the sense of ca-

maraderie as we filled a truck

bed with trees’ last tenacious

apples, the sense—made tan-

gible by the act of collecting

donated, surplus apples

for the food shelf—of in-

terconnectedness (and

indeed, the overlap) be-

tween farmer, volun-

teer, and apple-eater.

In the past half year with

LYFS and Salvation

Farms, I’ve enjoyed tak-

ing part in some of the

initiatives to capture ag-

ricultural surplus that

Salvation Farms seeks to

strengthen throughout

the state. This summer I

gleaned squash and

beans with a group orga-

nized by the VT Food-

bank; a few weeks ago I

helped process peppers

harvested by the Caledonia

Work Crew in partnership with

Salvation Farms. Most

recently, I spent a Saturday

with volunteers from

Burlington’s Intervale (with a

few other VYT A*VISTA

recruits from my end!) at an

apple orchard. In a nod to my

first-ever gleaning experience

with HOPE, I enjoyed myself

immensely. The weather

smiled down on us with sun

and light breezes; the

volunteers were

multi-generational and all

very genial. The final yield

was around 6,700 lbs. of ap-

ples, over 6,500 lbs. of which

were later sorted and bagged

(for shelf life and ease of

distribution) at the Southeast

State Correctional Facility by

the crew working with my

Salvation Farms supervisor,

Theresa Snow. These will be

distributed to organizations

that help feed low-income

Vermonters.

As fall turns on, I’m looking

forward to exploring more

deeply the impact of gleaning.

My point of departure as a

volunteer primarily involves

feeling impactful in a positive

way, and it’s easy to focus on

the good interconnectedness

that I believe results from

gleaning. I hope my experi-

ences challenge me to under-

stand the nuances of my

service year and guide me to

both be critical and to

celebrate.

8

Marcella processes peppers at the

Hardwick Food Venture Center.

As I’ve gotten to know my fellow VISTAs over

the past few months, I’ve discovered that the

men and women serving through Vermont

Youth Tomorrow this year have come to Ver-

mont from a wide spectrum of backgrounds,

experiences, and belief systems. One of the

things we have in common is a desire for work

that is fulfilling and which promotes a sense of

community. My own background is relatively

academic—after graduating with my Master’s

degree in Environmental History last summer, I

realized that academia was not the best

professional fit for me. I’m tempted to say I

took a fork in my career path, but in reality, I

jumped off the path and started wandering in

the woods. I started a temporary job and

began to think about what I wanted to do for a

living: I wanted work that was challenging and

dynamic, that let me work with a diverse set of

people, and which made me feel connected

with community and purpose. I was ecstatic to

land the position as Communications and Tech-

nology Specialist VISTA at Mobius, Vermont’s

Mentoring Partnership, because I knew I’d be

meeting passionate and dedicated people who

value community and service.

In my first two months as an AmeriCorps

VISTA member serving through the Vermont

Youth Tomorrow program with Mobius, I’ve

learned something new every day. I love that

each week at Mobius is different; the (mostly)

quiet days working in the office are inter-

spersed with days spent shuttling from meeting

to meeting or making a longer trip to a

mentoring event. My favorite part of the posi-

tion so far is the opportunities to visit and learn

about different mentoring programs across the

state. Not only do I look forward to the breath-

takingly beautiful car rides through Vermont, I

also get to meet hardworking people who

love working for youth in Vermont. The

mentoring movement here is so strong

and I am inspired by program staff who

are constantly thinking and working crea-

tively to open up new opportunities for

mentor pairs.

I enter my third month of service, I have

taken on more responsibility in outreach

and communications through online media

and by publishing Vermont’s Mentoring

Newsletter. I am also working

with Vermont’s Mentoring Database, a

statewide data management for

mentoring programs across the state. As I

become more familiar with the system, I

will be helping program staff and mentors

get to know the database and learn how to

maximize its potential for each individual men-

toring program. My future projects include ex-

panding Mobius’ current Mentor Discount

Card program throughout Vermont and

beginning to volunteer as a mentor! One of the

best parts of my experience in moving to Ver-

mont and joining the AmeriCorps program has

been working with other VISTAs not only

through my work with Mobius, but also at

events and volunteer opportunities held by

other organizations. It’s been a wonderful way

to learn about the state and meet new friends.

Daron Blake, VYT A*VISTA member

Mobius, Vermont’s Mentoring Partnership (Winooski, VT)

Daron tests out mentoring tools with Communications and Technology

Manager Benji Thurber and Executive Director Chad Butt.

Hello, my name is Ashley Piatt and I am serving at Cornerstone

Bridges to Life Community Cen-ter in Richford, Vermont. I antici-pate this service year not only to

be filled with firsts, but to also challenge me to live independent-ly. I have already started this

year with two large firsts: my first year doing AmeriCorps and this is the farthest I have ever been

from home (a small, rural farming town of Rensselaer, Indiana). I recently graduated from college

this past May with a Bachelor of Science degree in Educational Studies and a minor in psycholo-

gy and sociology. And my original plan involved me heading to graduate school right after

graduation, but as the date grew closer the more I realized that I

wanted to take a year and do something meaningful before

heading to graduate school for Educational Psychology. I first

heard about AmeriCorps in one of my social work courses and when I was researching possible ways

to spend the next year, I just happened to remember AmeriCorps. I really liked what

AmeriCorps had to offer and the mission of the program, so I created an application and began

applying to nonprofits. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be somewhere outside of

Indiana, but I had no idea that I would end up accepting a position in Vermont.

The goal of the community center is to provide the people in this town with means to improve their

skills and education by providing them with services that may

otherwise be inaccessible due to

physical isolation. While doing so, they are also aiming to build

and strengthen the relationships amongst people in the communi-ty. The area of my focus is to

give the youth in the community a safe place to spend their time, as well as providing funding for

Cornerstone to keep the center and its programs sustained.

Ashley Piatt, VYT A*VISTA member

Cornerstone Bridges to Life Community Center

(Richford, VT)

Ashley and a community

member at Cornerstone.

Nikita Griffin, VYT A*VISTA member

Essex CHIPS (Essex Junction, VT)

My name is Nikita (Kiki to those that

know me personally). I am 26

years old, and I relocated from

Tampa, FL to serve as the VYT

VISTA Communications Coordinator

at Essex CHIPS in Essex Junction,

VT. My interest in joining the

AmeriCorps stems from my passion

for helping those in need. Altruism

has always been a core part of my

value base, and upon finishing my

Bachelor’s degree in 2009 I knew

that I wanted to work toward mak-

ing a difference using the

knowledge and skills I had gained

as an undergrad.

A well-established way of going

about this came in the form of

AmeriCorps VISTA -- which a col-

lege pal had brought to my atten-

tion after I expressed frustration

with getting my path to “making a

difference” underway. After much

research and deliberation I decided

that becoming a VISTA was a

surefire way of moving even

closer to completing my personal

and professional goals.

I was pretty nervous once the

beginning of my assignment official-

ly rolled around, but it did not take

long for me to just take a deep

breath and remind myself that I

have a lot to bring to the table in

the realm of communications, mar-

keting, and designing print and web

media. With that said, I hope that

by the end of my year of service I

have helped my project site fully

realize all of their communication/

marketing needs. I hope they come

to understand that having a pres-

ence that is easily recognizable,

tastefully designed, and appeals to

their core audience will take them a

Kiki at

Essex

CHIPS.

Hello, My name is Anna Berg; I am the AmeriCorps VISTA serv-

ing as the Youth Leadership Co-ordinator of the Vermont Youth Development Program. My role

is to build the capacity of the Program’s Youth Development

Committee, which is a group of youth in foster care who serve as an advisory board for statewide

policy making in the area of child welfare. I do this through mem-ber recruitment and support, as

well as program development, such as organizing leadership op-portunities and developing pro-

fessional skills training.

The idea to apply for an

AmeriCorps position really came

to me by chance. I was close to

finishing my degree at the University of New Hampshire, floating around it that period

before graduation clueless as to what my next step would look

like. Grad school was unappealing; I knew I needed

some time outside of the class-

room both for my personal sanity and my bank account. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to commit to

a real “grown-up” long-term job. I had tossed around the idea of doing the Peace Corps, but that

wasn’t quite right either. And then an acquaintance at a birth-

day party suggested I check out

AmeriCorps, and suddenly that became “the plan.”

As anyone who has ever looked at the AmeriCorps website knows, the process of finding a

suitable position can be overwhelming. I spent weeks

narrowing down the positions to a few that peaked my interest, until the perfect one was

discovered. With a background in child advocacy and family

policy from my studies at UNH I

knew that I was interested in a position that centered on child welfare or social policy develop-

ment. I found one that had both!

Addressing poverty from within

the foster care system is exciting

in that it is somewhat unique

from other poverty-eradication programs. Youth who leave the foster care system without a sta-

ble “forever home” have such limited social, let alone financial,

supports and are at tremendous risk of becoming homeless and/

or acquiring huge amounts of

debt. Statistically, populations of people who are homeless or in-carcerated are made up dispro-

portionally of people who at one time were in foster care. It is all too common for foster care alum-

ni to be left with little opportunity because the system failed to

provide them with an adequate

education, whether because they were forced to move from school

to school or because their resi-dential home only provided them with remedial classes.

The number of barriers that these children and youth face is

unimaginable to anyone who has never been directly involved. The beautiful thing about the Youth

Development Program’s charge for youth leadership is that we

work to break down barriers for

individual youth – through pro-fessional skills development and helping them access various

leadership opportunities – and using those skills and opportuni-

ties to get youth involved in

making systemic changes to

Family Services. The youth I serve are not only bettering themselves, they also are helping

to create a framework in which those who come after them may

have fewer barriers.

Anna Berg, VYT A*VISTA member

Vermont Youth Development Program (Montpelier, VT)

The youth I work with are not only bettering themselves; they are helping to create a

framework in which those who come after them may have fewer barriers.

I’ve always been fascinated by the power and

energizing flavor of grassroots community organi-

zations. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, I’ve

known many wonderful local leaders who have tak-

en on environmental and social concerns as part of

an ethic of community responsibility. After all, the

beautiful landscapes, towns, and cities that we call

home are also places that need to be cared for.

And who could possibly steward a place better

than those that call it home?

I always had a strong sense of attachment to place

when I thought of home. Growing up, I had a big

wooded backyard where I was free to roam around,

and I always envisioned those woods as a safe ha-

ven. This early exposure to nature would later

draw me into the world of environmental advocacy

as a young woman—both to protect the land as well

as the people who lived on it. Throughout college,

I lent my artistic and organizing abilities to different

environmental groups striving for more sustainable

energy and agricultural policies.

On the heels of my college graduation this summer

past, I interned at my county planning commission,

and cultivated a greater understanding of how

planning ordinances and policies create the frame-

works that direct community development and

growth. I also spent a chunk of time researching

different ways the commission might reach out and

gauge local opinion on different planning issues.

Community engagement is often so critical in a

participatory democracy, and yet many people of-

ten feel disengaged from this process. When I left

my internship, I knew the next step for me would

be working to engage people directly as a commu-

nity organizer.

This year I’m excited to be serving as the new Resi-

dent Organizer VISTA with the Vermont Affordable

Housing Coalition (VAHC). Working with families

and individuals living in affordable housing develop-

ments, I will be serving as a resource for those in

need of social services, as well as a facilitator for

community-building events and programming. I

am hoping to bring arts-based activities to commu-

nity residents as a way of inspiring community co-

hesion amongst residents. My service as an organ-

izer with VAHC is part of a legacy of tenant organiz-

ing that dates back to the 1980s when the Burling-

ton Northgate Apartments in the New North End

were saved from possible redevelopment into mar-

ket-rate condominiums. My service will hopefully

cultivate the core community strength needed to

support the ongoing availability of

affordable housing in Vermont.

Michelle Sayles, A*VISTA member

Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (Burlington, VT)

Team Meetings

At VYT team meetings,

members share

accomplishments and

challenges, give and receive

feedback, and participate in

discussions about VISTA and

VYT requirements. Each

month, 3 members develop

agendas which include

objectives and intended

outcomes and facilitate a

small group of 8 members in

reflection and discussion.

Books have been one of my greatest loves as

long as I can remember. My mother said before I

could read, I would demand she read to me every

night, even if she had read the same story count-

less times. Once I had the ability to make sense

of words on the page, I read almost anything I

could get my hands on. My taste continued to

grow and almost every genre captured my atten-

tion. I loved fiction for its ability to transport me

to different worlds, and I also adored reading non-

fiction which helped teach me about the world

around me.

Books have continued to be one of my deepest

loves and play a part in how I perceive the world

around me. As an AmeriCorps VISTA at the

Franklin Grand Isle Bookmobile, I hope to pass on

my love for reading and knowledge to kids

throughout the counties of Grand Isle and Franklin

in northern Vermont. The Bookmobile provides a

huge collection of books to youth who might not

otherwise have access to them, and helps them

both in literacy and their imagination. Every year,

we visit over 800 children in rural communities

through stops at childcare providers and pre-

schools (and that number is growing every year!).

When we make a patron stop, we sing songs

and/or tell riddles, read a variety of stories, and

help the kids find books to check out and take

home with them. It is such a great feeling to see

children get excited about reading and wanting to

check out as many books as they can possibly

hold. The Bookmobile helps fight the vicious cycle

of the poverty by giving youth the tools they need

to succeed in school. With improved literacy skills,

they will be more successful in school and have

access to a wider range of options to have pros-

perous futures. The Bookmobile’s presence in the

community instills a positive image of reading as

fun and accessible to everyone, no matter their

situation. In addition, our collection contains

books and resources for adults, parents and

childcare providers to help them find the

knowledge to help them raise healthy, happy kids

and help continue their love of reading. Besides

my work with the Bookmobile, I am also assisting

with an after-school CrossRoads class called Ver-

Money, which will help teach 3rd-6th graders about

financial literacy. With the knowledge I hope to

teach them, they can begin to develop smart

spending and saving habits from an early age and

bring those habits into adulthood.

Throughout my year of service, I hope to make

the Bookmobile stronger as an organization

through increasing our funding stream, planning

fundraising and PR events, developing and

continuing programs, and making our relationship

with the community stronger and

farther-reaching. The Bookmobile’s mission is

important to me, and I look forward to

contributing my ideas and hard work to this great

organization.

The Franklin-Grand Isle Bookmobile

Allie Pflughoeft, VYT A*VISTA member

Franklin Grand-Isle Bookmobile

(Swanton, VT)

Every year in May there is a ritual

within the Social Work depart-ment at the University of New Hampshire. As each graduating

class prepares to take off their metaphorical training wheels, the

Social Work department invites our families and friends to a cere-monial breakfast celebration,

where we as the graduates boast about our next adventures and

life plans. Unfortunately, for

graduates much like myself, this highlighted the fact that I didn’t have my life in order and that my

plans for after college consisted of my mother’s couch. I had

applied to and got accepted to multiple prestigious graduate programs but felt that “real life”

experience would be better than sitting in a classroom again.

As you may have guessed, the “real life” experience I was looking for landed me an

AmeriCorps VISTA position in Vermont. I was unlike many of

my social work colleagues--I didn’t have a specific population I wanted to work with; instead, I

wanted to work with communities (a macro social worker if you will), in particular, communities

with high needs. Being able to shepherd positive impacts and

help a community at large is what

got me inspired and jazzed about the otherwise depressing work we

social workers do.

Filling my car to the brim with clothing and random belongings, I

made my trek up Interstate 89, eager to begin a new chapter of my life. I felt a little like the Joan

of Arc (minus the whole burning at the stake part), setting off to a

land unknown, hopeful of being victorious against an enemy. My

enemy being poverty, a foe that

has proved to be unwavering to the people I would be serving. Hopeful, I made my way to

Vermont with barely enough money for a tank of gas and a dream, a dream that I would

leave Burlington better off than when I arrived.

I believe that the Nigerian proverb, “it takes a whole village to raise a child” is true, especially

in today’s society. In order to

fight poverty, it has to be a collaborative approach.

Community Friends Mentoring (CFM) offers a one-on-one friend-ship to children that might not

have a positive adult role model in their lives or children that just

need that extra support. The children referred to CFM, for whatever reason, just need a

solid friend, someone to hang out with and get their minds off of the

worries at home. The really cool thing about CFM is that not only do the kids benefit from the

friendship but mentors benefit from time spent with their

mentees as well.

You may be asking yourself “how does mentoring fix the issue of

poverty?” and well, I will tell you. By being a mentor to a child, we plant the seeds of hope and

future within them. Sometimes without knowing it, we inspire

kids to dream and hope, things

that are usually stripped of those who are impoverished. Talking

about a high school tassel around your rearview mirror might inspire your mentee to graduate

high school, a life milestone that may not be within your mentee’s radar. Or bringing a kid to a

restaurant that they’ve never been to might give them enough

excitement to stay out of trouble for a week and something to look

forward to each week. Being a

confidant to children, who otherwise have no one to talk to, might allow them to get things off

their chests that they may have had bottled up inside. You get the point. As minimal as hanging

out with a kid for a few hours a week may appear, it truly does

affect the lives of these children and ultimately their families.

The work that I do here at CFM

does in no way completely

reverse the effects of poverty; instead, it offers these children a

friend and the ability to dream. It is my goal to coordinate fun events for our matches, update

social media, compile and communicate resources within the

community, and provide support for our mentors in hopes that my efforts will ultimately make the

lives of these children a little better.

Sara Dillingham, VYT A*VISTA member

Community Friends Mentoring (Burlington, VT)

Sara and her supervisor,

Catherine, at a recent fundraising

event for Community Friends.

VYT MEMBER ACCOMPLISHMENTS 2012-2013

We are very proud of the accomplishments of the Vermont Youth Tomorrow

A*VISTA members.

100% of organizations hosting VYT members reported that the members’ capacity building

activities made the organization more effective.

95% of organizations hosting VYT members reported that the members’ capacity building activities made the organization more efficient.

89% of organizations hosting VYT members reported that they had an increase in request for

services as a result of members’ service.

During the 2012-2013 program year, members accomplished the following:

Procured $557,432 in cash and in-kind donations used to create and improve programs that support low-income youth and families.

Recruited and/or managed 1,664 community volunteers, mentors, and tutors who gave 43,977

hours of service to communities, organizations, and youth (the equivalent of $791,586 in services).

Served 7,966 individual youth (unduplicated count) who benefited directly from their service; another 56,781 individual youth benefited indirectly from their service.

Managed 365 youth/mentor matches.

Established 198 new funding streams (donors, grants, events) benefitting 20 community-based organizations.

Provided services 598 family members of veterans and active duty troops.

Created 40 job training programs and activities benefiting 1,506 individuals.

Assisted 312 individuals with housing and basic needs.

Provided nutrition information and programs benefitting 2,137 youth and adults.

Developed 141 initiatives that engaged 1,230 youth in structured physical activity.

Developed and implemented 115 feeding programs or initiatives that provided healthy meals for 1,010 individuals.

Developed 547 public relations tools that will be used to create more awareness of the services,

programs, and initiatives our members help support.

Created or enhanced 230 business operations systems to make services more efficient and effective.

Members built community partnerships through collaborations with 424 community groups.

Members facilitated 130 presentations to community groups, reaching 2,848 individuals.

I came to Vermont Youth Tomorrow after living in Massachusetts for two years, though I grew up and

attended college in Washington State. While ser-vice learning was an integral component of my uni-

versity’s educational model, I never had direct con-versations about poverty, and never worked with anybody in poverty. I was involved with a men’s

feminist organization, which I loved, as well as a club that raised funds to support low-income unin-sured families, whose children required healthcare.

I never met any of these uninsured children or their low-income families. I raised funds almost entirely on campus, and once asked the owner of a

Mexican restaurant for an in-kind donation.

I looked for a VISTA position working with college students. I got excited about my service site, The DREAM Program, because the role of the Program

Empowerment VISTA involves working with college students. DREAM’s mission is to pair college men-

tors with youth in affordable housing communities.

The mentors, feeding off the empowerment I offer them, work to help youth recognize their options,

make informed decisions, and achieve their dreams.

When I began this position in August, I felt inter-ested in working with students because I had done

so in Boston, where I mentored volunteers on a suicide prevention helpline, and because I’d obvi-

ously done so when I was in college. I had a vague notion that I enjoyed working with college volun-teers, and an even vaguer notion that, like me,

many students studied really neat stuff, learning lots of things, without encountering the Big Stuff or the Big Things—the complex and confusing rela-

tional madhouse of most-of-adulthood—until life after college.

As it turns out, the college students I now serve

think and encounter and have big confused conversations about poverty every week. Over their (often) four years with DREAM, they get to

know the cultures of the housing communities they work with, and they work firsthand to mentor

youth through the compounded difficulties of living in poverty and growing older than the age of eight.

DREAM’s mentors are engaged in their

communities in ways I never remotely experienced when I was in college. I’m learning from them every day. Similarly, these mentors are learning

and growing as much as myself and the youth they serve. Sometimes, when I think about alleviating

poverty, I picture a big inclusive file cabinet of 401Ks—which have been explained to me but ac-tually I still don’t understand them. But alleviate

means “to make less severe,” and I basically

think that much of VISTA involves ameliorating the line between the “needy impoverished” and

the “helping middle-class.”

Now almost two months into service, I have a vision about how I’d like to assist DREAM,

though it’s a vision fueled with embarrassingly little research. I mostly hope to empower

mentors to build stronger relationships with the families of the youth they mentor. Cur-rently I know four parents by name, so I’m

working on that too.

Mark Hengstler, A*VISTA member

The DREAM Program (Burlington, VT)

As it turns out, the college students I now serve think and encounter and have big

confused conversations about poverty every week.

Mark with DREAM Staff

My first encounter with

AmeriCorps came when I saw a

poster advertising a way to make

money for college in exchange for

community service. Fast forward a

year, 300 hours, and numerous

life changing experiences later,

the year was 2011 and I was in

my senior year at Mercyhurst

College in Erie, PA.

As my friends were busy writing

personal statements and finishing

job applications, I was simply

looking forward to graduation and

being done with tests, essays, and

reading assignments. As an Eng-

lish major with a concentration in

creative writing and a minor in

photography, I knew I wanted to

do something creative, but grad

school didn't interest me and I

needed time to figure out what

exactly I wanted to do with the

rest of my life.

During previous summers while

my classmates were working at

internships and gaining

experience, I

went home to

Indiana to

work at

summer camp,

sing silly

songs, and

encourage kids

to always try

their best. At

the time, I didn't think the skills

learned during my 3 summers as

a camp counselor applied to a

professional career, but I knew I

was having fun and I knew I was

doing something that actually

mattered and made a difference.

I also loved getting hugs from my

campers at the end of the week

when they didn’t want to leave.

When the time finally came to

apply to “real jobs,” my only re-

sult was an endless amount of

frustration. “Campsick” for the

outdoors and wanting a new ad-

venture, I applied to a camp in

Vermont, having only been to the

state for a few ski trips previously.

That summer, I not only fell in

love with New England, but also

met one of my best friends, and

when I learned she was applying

to AmeriCorps with NCCC, I decid-

ed that I needed a different ap-

proach to finding a job and using

my degree; thus came the idea to

revisit the AmeriCorps portal and

apply to become a VISTA.

The idea for the Bookmobile

stemmed from a grant written to

directly address the lack of

access to libraries and educational

reading materials in the rural and

poverty stricken areas of

northwestern Vermont. Over ten

years later and armed with an

8,800 book collection, the Book-

mobile serves roughly 800 low-

income youth a year with a mis-

sion to promote a lifelong love of

learning and provide greater ac-

cess to books, information, and

activities through valuable

community connections.

As a VISTA, I’ll work toward mak-

ing the Bookmobile a more sus-

tainable organization by helping

with resource and program devel-

opment, researching and writing

grants, and building partnerships

with the community members in

the area I serve. However, I think

my favorite parts will always be

making stops, singing silly songs,

and recommending books that will

send children on their own

magical adventures. And of

course, I’ll always love getting

hugs from the kids at the end of

the stop when they don’t want to

leave.

Sara Pierce, A*VISTA member

Franklin Grand-Isle Bookmobile

(Swanton, VT)

Hanging out with Clifford on a break between stops.

Over ten years later and armed with an 8,800 book collection, the Bookmobile serves roughly 800 low-income youth a year with a mission to promote a lifelong love of learning and provide greater

access to books, information, and activities through valuable community connections.

Ryan Morra, VYT A*VISTA member

Big Picture South Burlington (South Burlington, VT)

At first glance my path to

AmeriCorps VISTA service with

Big Picture South Burlington may

seem long, winding, and puzzling,

but in my head and heart it all

makes perfect sense. I spent the

bulk of my adolescence wanting

to be a poor bohemian actor in

New York City. But after deferring

from a college acting program in

order to enter Ameri-

Corps NCCC, I ended

up spending three

years as a Corps Mem-

ber, Team Leader, and

staff member with

NCCC (all between the

ripe ages of 18 – 21).

Alongside my team-

mates, I served on a

variety of projects from

disaster relief after

September 11th to

building trails in West

Virginia, to painting

murals in Philadelphia

(and many, many

more!). All that service

spawned a passion for

conservation and education that

had not existed when I was grow-

ing up in a jam-packed suburb of

southern Connecticut.

Once I’d decided on a path for my

studies, I ventured south to War-

ren Wilson College in Asheville,

North Carolina, receiving my B.S.

in Biology. There, I deepened my

knowledge of environmental is-

sues while also working for the

college’s small-scale sustainable

forestry operation as a logger and

sawmill operator. It was during

one fateful summer break that I

headed to Vermont to work as a

backcountry caretaker with the

Green Mountain Club. It didn’t

take long for me to fall in love

with the mountains and culture of

Green Mountain State. The

Greens would wait a few years,

though, as I next headed west to

teach at Eagle Rock School in

Estes Park, Colorado through a

fellowship with Public Allies (an

AmeriCorps-funded program),

and received my teaching license

in secondary science education.

After a challenging and rewarding

year of teaching, I succumbed to

the travel bug and set forth on a

whirlwind of adventures ranging

from backpacking and canoeing

through the American West,

climbing volcanoes in Central

America, mountaineering in

Patagonia Chile, raising pigs on a

farm in Tuscany, Italy, and just

plain wandering through South-

east Asia.

Through all my travels, I

interspersed working with the

Vermont Youth Conservation

Corps and in the Montpelier

school system. I returned to

Vermont for graduate school in

the Field Naturalist &

Ecological Planning

Program at UVM. For my

master’s project, I worked

on a place-based

education project modeled

after the PLACE Program

(a UVM-Shelburne Farm

initiative) with a

community in central

Puerto Rico. While

volunteering with the

Partnership for Change

project in Burlington, I

encountered Big Picture

South Burlington, the

self-directed, real-world

learning program within

South Burlington High

School. Eager to learn from them

and to make a difference in the

lives of youth who haven’t

achieved success in traditional

high schools, I signed up for my

fourth(!) year of AmeriCorps.

Through VISTA, I am creating

curriculum centered on real-world

skills and partners students with

community mentors through pro-

fessional internships in order to

end the cycle of poverty that is

still alive and real for many

families in and around Burlington.

In his first month, Ryan created a food, agriculture, and nutrition curriculum "You Are What

You Eat" with the students, where they prepped two meals for Big Picture staff and

students to compare using local/organic ingredients and conventional ingredients.

Kate

Cah

ala

ne,

VYT A

*VIS

TA m

em

ber

The D

REAM

Pro

gra

m (

White R

iver

Jct.,

VT)

DREAM is an amazing program

that pairs college student men-

tors with youth living in

affordable housing communi-

ties in Boston and Vermont. I

am serving as the Program

Empowerment VISTA in White

River Junction, supporting a

group of mentors at Dartmouth

College who are paired with

youth living in three different

communities in Windsor Coun-

ty. Four years ago I never

would have predicted that I

would be serving with Ameri-

Corps. I was just beginning to

settle in at UVM and I was

looking for a way to get

involved. I serendipitously

stumbled upon the program at

an activities fair freshman year

and it quickly became a very

important part of my life. I was

able to escape the bubble of

my college campus and devote

some of my time to something

meaningful, establishing rela-

tionships with other mentors as

well as with mentees and their

families. I became increasingly

invested in the program

throughout my college career,

serving as a Summer

AmeriCorps community intern

as well as a co-chair, and de-

cided to apply through Ameri-

Corps to serve as a Program

Empowerment Director. I was

interested in doing a year of

service and was looking

forward to seeing how the

DREAM program works from

behind the scenes after

experiencing direct service as a

mentor. I was able to see

first-hand the impact the

DREAM program has on the

lives of so many children and

families as well as the sense of

community that the program

creates among mentors and

mentees. This village mentor-

ing style is what drew me in to

the program and is what moti-

vates me today as a VISTA

serving with DREAM.

I view my service as an

opportunity to strengthen a

program that has the unique

ability to create opportunities

and inspire personal growth

and healthy futures for children

in thoughtful, inspiring and,

often, wacky ways. As a VISTA

I have the ability to support my

site by building capacity with

the overarching goal of

alleviating poverty. I hope that

I can strengthen the local

program I serve with in White

River Junction so that the

DREAM program can expand

and reach more communities in

this area. I hope that my

previous experience as a

mentor in the DREAM program

will help me more effectively

serve as a program

empowerment director,

comparing program successes

and relating

my experi-

ences to

those of the

mentors I am

supporting.

My name is Amanda Udoff

and I am originally from Aus-

tin, TX by way of Brooklyn,

NY and Baltimore, MD. The

path to my VISTA service has

been primarily twofold: the

experiences that I have had

in direct service and admin-

istration with youth through-

out my career and my time

in college pursuing a BA in

Political Science.

I’ll begin with the latter. In

studying political theory and

philosophy, I became

interested in the idea of

leadership and economics on

a community level rather

than a state or federal one. It

became clear to me that if

we serve and are held

accountable to our

immediate neighbors, we will

all be elevated to a better

standard of living. The

corruption that I witnessed in

the Baltimore political system

where I went to college only

served to reinforce this idea.

The city seemed to be crum-

bling around me and none of

the supposed leaders were

doing anything to help the

people who needed it most.

In regard to the former

aspect of my path to VISTA,

I spent time working with

underprivileged youth as a

director for a before-and-

after-school program in

Baltimore and in a more

administrative role in the

records department of the

Texas Department of Family

and Protective Services. It

was in these positions that I

realized what an impact we

can have in our communities

by working with local youth

and families that find

themselves in jeopardy of

poverty or bad decision

making.

These two experiences

dovetail nicely in my role as

a Development Specialist for

the Washington County

Youth Service Bureau. By

providing support with

everything from fundraising

to program development for

the youth of Washington

County, I am able to serve

my immediate community in

a way that I feel is

responsive and necessary. In

working with the prevention

team, I am able to help

provide our teens with

opportunities to live a life of

their choosing rather than

the rural and sometimes

impoverished lives that they

may feel obligated to.

Am

an

da U

do

ff, VYT A

*VIS

TA m

em

ber

Washin

gto

n C

ounty

Youth

Serv

ices B

ure

au/

Boys &

Girls

Clu

b P

reventio

n P

rogra

ms

(Montp

elie

r & N

orth

field

, VT)

Alaina with youth from Winooski High School on a recent

service trip to the Burlington Emergency Shelter /

Ala

ina W

erm

ers,

A*VIS

TA

City o

f W

inooski Com

munity S

erv

ices D

epart

ment

Hello! My name is Alaina

Wermers, and I am serving a

second year with the City of

Winooski’s Community Services

Department as their Community

Engagement Coordinator.

Originally, I was only going to

serve one year and had no plans

of doing a second year. Howev-

er, just when I was getting my

feet under me it was already the

end of May. We were about to

start recruiting for the new me,

and I had a decision to make. I

hadn’t accomplished all that I

wanted that year and a second

year afforded me that oppor-

tunity. I also felt that Winooski

was on the verge of something

great, that it was about to come

into its own, and that our de-

partment was finally ready to

get its feet under itself after

several years of upheaval. The

City had spent the past couple

of years trying to right itself fi-

nancially and organizationally,

and it had finally come to a

point where it could look ahead

and do some long-range

planning.

This second year of service is

going to be far different from

my first year. I know my

organization now, and rather

than spend my time figuring it

out, I can spend my time work-

ing on programs and projects

that I had dreamt up during my

first year of service.

For instance, I will be leading a

series of service trips with

Winooski students to expose

them to community service that

is fun and engaging. I decided

to run this pilot program

because of gaps I saw in ser-

vices last year.

This year is also giving me the

chance to learn from my

mistakes during my first year of

service and improve upon them.

I started a new management

system for the community

gardens program, and with a

season under my belt I can see

what needs improvement and

have the relationships with the

gardeners on the Garden Team

to make the improvements. I

see a bright future for the pro-

grams and the community that I

am supporting. It is going to be

an exciting year with many

changes coming and I am truly

excited to be a part of it!

Alaina Wermers, VYT A*VISTA member

City of Winooski Community Services Department (Winooski, VT)

Alaina with youth from Winooski High School on a recent service trip to

the Burlington Emergency Shelter .

I cannot believe it is already

October and I have just finished

my first month of my SECOND

year as the AmeriCorps VISTA

serving through Vermont Youth

Tomorrow at Montpelier Parks

and Conservation Commission.

My name is Stephanie Olsen and

as mentioned before, this is my

second year of service at my

site. Before I began serving the

community of Montpelier, I

graduated from Sterling College

with a degree in Conservation

Ecology focusing in on wildlife

management. After graduation in

2012, I wanted to start my ca-

reer in the field of conservation

while giving back to a community

in need. When I learned about

the AmeriCorps VISTA position at

the Parks department, which

accommodated both of the com-

ponents I was looking for, I im-

mediately applied. When I was

selected, that is when my adven-

tures as a VISTA began.

Last year I was able to make a

huge difference in the lives of at

risk youth while being a good

steward to our environment.

While coordinating and managing

volunteers from multiple places

throughout the year and while

teaching job skills to Department

of Labor Trainees – over 100

trees were planted in the parks

and around downtown Montpel-

ier, hundreds of invasive plant

species were removed in a envi-

ronmentally friendly way, an in-

terpretive trail was set up for the

use of the public, and new plots

were added to our community

garden. While a lot was accom-

plished during last term, I am

anticipating that this term will

exceed my last year!

So far in the past month, I have

been able to plant over a hun-

dred trees and have coordinated

about 100 volunteers. I want to

expand on the foundation that I

have created here at the parks

department. I look forward to

making AmeriCorps proud and

continue to alleviate poverty in

my community. Through my ser-

vice year, I look forward to

alleviating poverty by giving at-

risk youth the chance to have a

hands-on learning experience

about trail work and conserva-

tion. By showing and using my

passion, they might be able to

find their own passion and moti-

vation. My hope for these at-risk

youth is by being a positive role

model, they will change negative

lifestyles and want to better

themselves.

I also help to manage a

community garden here in

Montpelier that is aimed at giving

low-income families a place to

grow their own food. This garden

also has a plot that is grown to

be donated to the Vermont

Foodbank to help families who do

not have a plot in my

community. Lastly, the parks are

also free of charge! This becomes

an equal resource to the whole

community. Little by little, each

VISTA makes a difference… a

whole bunch of VISTAs create a

large difference!

We are the unsung heroes and I

am proud to carry the title of an

AmeriCorps VISTA!

Steph Olsen, VYT A*VISTA member

Montpelier Parks and Conservation Commission (Montpelier, VT)

Steph and a SerVermont member prepare for a volunteer

project on the National Day of Remembrance (9/11/2013).

Steph and SerVermont members after finishing a service

project in Hubbard Park on 9/11/2013.

Hilary Watson, VYT A*VISTA member

Navicate—Burlington High School (Burlington, VT)

Hello Readers! If you had asked

me a year ago, I would have never known I would be introducing my-self to you all, but here I am—and

so happy to be! I am a native Se-attle-ite, born and raised just out-side the city. Prior to relocating for

my service, I had never been to Vermont-- boy was I missing out! Back in Seattle I was on a concrete

path. I had roots, a consistent job, and was planning to attend grad school when I asked myself

the question I now pose to my stu-dents: do you really know what is out there? Have you had enough

experiences to really know what a good next step might be? I wasn’t

sure I did.

That doubt is what lead me to a year of service with AmeriCorps. I find it slightly ironic that I am

doing a similar thing as all the students I now teach in my

internship class- I am trying

something new. I am gaining real world, hands-on experi-ence doing something I

am interested in, in order to help me figure out

where to go from here.

I am thrilled to be the VISTA Program Coordina-tor for Navicate, a spec-

tacular organization working to help inspire, connect, and prepare youth for their next steps after

high school! I feel so fortunate to be a part of their exceptional

team!

Throughout my year of service, I hope to fully immerse myself in Navicate’s programs. I want to

bring new ideas about program development, assist them with streamlining some of their

systems, help build new school

and business relationships, as well

as learn more about the resource development that keeps this or-ganization moving forward, helping

our youth. Thus far, each and eve-ry day has brought new opportuni-ties. I look forward to my year

ahead with the upmost excitement to channel my creativity, energy and love for helping others into all

that Navicate does.

Victoria Davis, VYT A*VISTA member

In-Sight Photography Project (Brattleboro, VT)

I became a VISTA after volun-

teering at In-Sight Photography

Project for two years while at-

tending Keene State College and

earning my BA in English Litera-

ture and Education. After I ap-

plied to the position, I began to

understand what the mission of

VISTA was. As a volunteer at In-

Sight, I had seen first hand the

impact that In-Sight is able to

achieve with its students. I also

saw the important role that the

former VISTA played with-

in the organization. I

decided that I wasn’t

ready to leave the In-Sight

family and wanted to

continue at In-Sight in a

more involved way while

building my skills.

In-Sight is a small organization

with a lofty mission of offering its

students a creative voice,

opportunity to experience success

tools for self-awareness and self-

worth, and encouragement to en-

gage with their community all

through photography. Youth ages

11-18 are able to join and classes

are available to anyone, regard-

less of their ability to pay.

In-Sight’s staff and budget are

minimal, but the organization

serves 150 students throughout

southern Vermont. With In-

Sight’s staff being so small, my

service has many capacities, from

working directly with students to

grant writing.

I would like to see an increase

In-Sight’s capacity and ability to

serve more youth. The best way

to see this happen would be

through fundraising and

increased volunteer involvement,

both things I believe I can

achieve with my service. I believe

strongly that youth involved in

after-school activities have more

opportunities to succeed.

Increasing the amount of youth

able to take classes at In-Sight

would have a correlation with the

VISTA mission of alleviating

poverty.

Learn to

Earn

Workshop:

Burlington

Victoria at In-Sight.

Caitlin Wyneken, VYT A*VISTA member

Kellogg-Hubbard Library (Montpelier, VT)

When signed onto the AmeriCorps website to look at positions including the one I would eventually be accepted for at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, I first

had to have my old password sent to me and then create a new application- because so much of what

is in my first one had changed. I’ve been looking into positions with the organization for years now and, at that time, had been looking for work just

about anywhere for two years. But I still kept

coming back to AmeriCorps. I looked for positions involving writing/editing to match my background,

and found one at a library. Within two months, I was on my way 700 miles from Michigan to

Montpelier.

What drew me to AmeriCorps in the first place was the idea of serving in a local community, as part of

a national network, and in fields that actually mat-tered to me on a personal level. I also had a grow-ing interest in a permanent career in the non-profit

field. But the sector, like any, is subject to the vi-cious cycle that job seekers constantly find them-

selves caught in: to get a position, you need expe-

rience. But because you don’t have any experience in the first place, you can’t get a position to gain

the experience you need. By the time you get to the point that you want to call and personally thank those rare individuals who take the time to send

you a rejection letter on real paper, flipping burgers sounds like a godsend.

But I’m not flipping burgers. Instead, I’m doing

something that has the potential to make a real difference at a site whose presence in the local area

I could feel almost immediately. There are VYT training sessions that are far more fun than some-

thing called a “training” could ever be expected to be, with people I truly enjoy getting to hang out with once a month (or, hopefully, more often!).

Above all, there are people around me all the time who believe in the same things I do and are willing

to work for it, even if it means making sacrifices of their own in the process.

We’re very lucky to be part of a program that

supports us and has members that want to be there every day. And that’s what makes AmeriCorps members stand out.

What drew me to AmeriCorps in

the first place was the idea of

serving in a local community, as

part of a national network, and in

fields that actually mattered to me

on a personal level.

The Kellogg-Hubbard Library

in Montpelier

Long before I began my VISTA service, I joined DREAM as a mentor in the Middlebury Local

Program, and was quickly hooked by the program’s fun-loving culture and emphasis on creating ownership for youth living in affordable

housing neighborhoods and their college student mentors. As graduation drew nearer, I was still un-sure of what I would do next, and I realized that

being a DREAM mentor had been the highlight of my college career. I had watched the program grow immensely and saw firsthand the impact

DREAM had, not only on its youth, but also on the

mentors. I wanted to continue to be part of such

an inspiring organization.

Now, as a Program Empowerment VISTA, I support the college student mentors from two of DREAM’s

Local Programs, who in turn plan weekly mentoring activities and special events for the youth they serve. While DREAM gives mentors a lot of owner-

ship in running their programs, I am there to make sure the programs at Bennington College and

Green Mountain College run smoothly and sustain-ably and remain successful. I hope that their expe-riences in DREAM will be as positive as mine was.

When I began my first year of VISTA service at DREAM, a colleague ex-plained to me that it can of-

ten take three semesters or more to see a real change in a Local Program, which

means that if I introduce a new idea to mentors, it

might be a year and a half before it is actually put into place. That thought stayed

with me through my first year, and I knew that

spending a second year as a

VISTA with DREAM would be the best way to see the results of my efforts.

Now that I am in my second year, I can do even more to build capacity in my programs. I will

continue to develop the training and tools I started last year, support mentors through logistical challenges, and maintain connections

between staff, mentors, families, and community partners. However, now I have gained experience and built relationships, which will allow me to be

more effective at these tasks, all of which contribute to my programs’ success.

This added capacity will ensure that mentors can

be confident in their weekly activities with their mentees, which in turn allows DREAM to continue

to be a positive force in the lives of the youth we serve. I am consistently inspired by all that DREAM mentors and youth are able to accomplish, and

through my VISTA service, I will continue to encourage them to dream bigger and better.

Ali, a Summer Community Intern, a volunteer, and

some DREAM youth at the Fun Spot in Lake George,

NY at their summer culminating experience.

Ali Siegel, VYT A*VISTA member

The DREAM Program (Bennington, VT)

Hello, My name is Ashton and I am the VISTA with the

Willowell Foundation, an organization that (among

other things) provides land-based educational

opportunities to the youth Addison County.

I became a VISTA because of my desire to provide

alternative education to youth who live below or near

the poverty line. While studying Education at a college

in Minneapolis, MN, I became passionate about chang-

ing the education system in America. Unfortunately,

many alternative schools must operate privately and

charge tuition that most families cannot afford. I be-

lieve that it is important to create access to alternative

learning styles for youth of all economic backgrounds

because having the ability to participate in a dynamic

and flexible educational experience can help them rec-

ognize their needs and access their full potential. After

speaking to several former AmeriCorps members, I

realized that a year of service would provide me with

an opportunity to work with an organization devoted

to alternative education, as well as work with impov-

erished youth.

I am hopeful that my year of service will aid Willowell

in many ways. First, I'm excited to help the organiza-

tion develop a Farm to School program by applying for

a planning grant through the Vermont Agency of Agri-

culture, Department of Education, Department of

Health and the VT Food Education Every Day (FEED)

Program.

This resource would allow us to develop and prepare

to implement a partnership with our local public school

district, which will result in healthier school lunches

that feature local, organically grown foods.

Another aspect of the partnership will be a regular

"school to farm" field trip schedule, allowing us to

educate district youth about the food cycle,

composting, permaculture, ecology, and

environmental responsibility. By helping Willowell get

this grant, I will be part of creating a sustainable

program that will enable hundreds of kids to become

more knowledgeable and thereby more in-control of

the role food plays in their lives.

Another way that we are helping to alleviate poverty

in our community is by offering an assortment of

land-based educational programs for youth ages 3-

18. These programs are designed to teach skills that

will help them navigate and preserve the natural

world around them, while building an active, caring

community. My role consists of finding resources

(such as grants, donations, and volunteers) as well

as some direct service. The youth who participate in

our wilderness preschool, monthly outdoor classes,

summer camp series, or Walden high school pro-

ject, will leave the program with a greater under-

standing of their own abilities and responsibilities.

By offering these learning opportunities, we hope

to create spaces in which youth will develop a

sense of agency and feel capable of improving

themselves and the world around them.

Ashton Kulesa, VYT A*VISTA member

The Willowell Foundation (Monkton, VT)

Ezra (the son of Willowell's soon-to-be

resident farmers) with the cabbage crop.

Wren's Nest, Willowell’s wilderness pre-school

program for three to six-year-olds .

VYT VISTA provides members the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive professional development and

skills building training program. Members gather monthly to reflect on service experiences, receive peer

support, strengthen professional and communication skills, and build their commitment to service.

Throughout their service terms, VYT members help build the capacity and viability of their organizations by

creating curricula, recruiting volunteers, increasing funding and identifying new funding streams, and creating

databases and sustainable systems. VYT Training and Member Development is designed to help members

acquire the skills needed to fulfill VISTA activities and tasks, help them find jobs after completing service, and

provide opportunities for members to support one another, and explore local resources most effective in

alleviating poverty and addressing other community conditions.

Since meeting the 2013-2014 VYT team in August 2013 for the 3-day VYT orientation, we have participated in

training related to temperament and personality styles, the structure of nonprofits, poverty, positive youth de-

velopment theory, and grant writing and fundraising.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator and Temperament Styles with Markey Read, Career Networks: Members

learned about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator model, which is an assessment designed to measure psychologi-

cal preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. Members learned about their own prefer-

ences and gained a better understanding of how others approach situations and how to better work with all

types. In a separate Temperament Styles training, members and their supervisors learned about the various

temperament styles and learn to work with other temperament styles.

Structure of Non-Profit Organizations with Christine Graham, CPG Enterprises: Members learned about

the legal requirements, structure, and nature of non-profit organizations.

Poverty Workshop with Jennifer Jewiss, Ed.D., University of Vermont: The purpose of this training was

for members to explore poverty through theoretical constructs and personal experience; examine how poverty

manifests in rural, suburban, and urban areas; and reflect on what they have observed at their sites and in their

communities.

Positive Youth Development with Kreig Pinkham, Executive Director, Washington County Youth Ser-

vice Bureau/Boys and Girls Club: Members discussed the various factors that affect adolescent development

(environmental, social, biological). Members learned how to use positive youth development theory to improve

their interactions with youth and include youth in planning and implementation of programs and services.

Grant Writing and Fundraising Workshop with Andy Robinson, Consultant: Members learned the basics

of grant writing, fundraising and developing relationships with funders at this training. They also learned how to

best research funding opportunities and practiced approaching potential funders.

Professional Development and Trainings

Members participate in tower building activity during the

MBTI Training with Markey Read in October.

A member-drawn illustration of a small group discussion about

the various challenges and opportunities facing those living in

rural, urban, and suburban poverty.

Vermont Youth Tomorrow

AmeriCorps VISTA Program

PO Box 627/ 38 Elm St.

Montpelier, VT

05601-0627

Phone: 802-229-9151

Program Director:

M. Kadie Schaeffer

[email protected]

Assistant Directors:

Jessi Engelke

[email protected]

Callie Frey

[email protected]

Kirsten Brewer

[email protected]

A*VISTA Leader:

Anna Houston

[email protected]

The opinions expressed in the articles in this newsletter

belong to the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect

the views of the site where the VISTA serves, Vermont Youth

Tomorrow, the Washington County Youth Service Bureau,

the Boys & Girls Club, SerVermont, or CNCS.

VYT is sponsored by

the Washington

County Youth

Service Bureau/Boys

& Girls Club.

2013-2014 VYT A*VISTA Team

vyt voices fall 2013

Documents

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