Montana Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTAs and staff members.

We are excited to bring on a class of fourteen new and continuing Volunteers In Service To America (aka “VISTAs”) this July and August. These inspring folks come from here in Montana, nearby and as far away as Louisiana to seek innovative solutions to poverty problems.

The VISTA program is unique in the family of National Service programs because of its explicit charge to move Americans out of of poverty. I like to call it a “older cousin” to AmeriCorps, even though it’s officially known as AmeriCorps VISTA now. MTCC’s VISTA program engages higher education in this important antipoverty work. Most analagous to a domestic version of the Peace Corps, VISTA is a program that:

• was created during Lyndon Johnson administration;
• Include famous alums Ray Magliozzi from Car Talk and Senator Jay Rockefeller;
• Is approaching its fiftieth anniversary; and
• focuses on sustainable, community-led solutions to poverty problems;

After Peace Corps in Latvia, I served as VISTA leader with MTCC’s very first VISTA project. It was a memorable year getting the project started. MTCC’s VISTA program specifically places full-time, year-long volunteers with education and veterans-focused projects. You can read more about this awesome new class of MTCC VISTAs here. We’ll have more about the individual projects over the next year.