Clarissa Barks

AmeriCorps VISTA

AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) is the national service program that works to eliminate poverty. The first VISTAs began serving in 1965 in the migrant farm worker camps in California, the hollows of eastern Kentucky, and the inner city of Hartford, CT. Since then, more than 200,000 VISTAs have served throughout America to expand the capacity of homegrown efforts to address community challenges. AmeriCorps VISTA members develop initiatives that enable people to become self-sufficient and secure. Our impact is reflected in the hundreds of programs that VISTAs help expand over the decades, including Head Start, Upward Bound, the credit union system, Habitat for Humanity, and Neighborhood Watch. AmeriCorps VISTA members commit to serve full-time for a year at a nonprofit organization or local government agency, working to fight illiteracy, improve health services, create businesses, strengthen community groups, and much more. With passion, commitment, and hard work, you'll create or expand programs designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. AmeriCorps VISTA is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a federal agency that engages more than 5 million Americans in service through AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. To learn more, visit www.AmeriCorps.gov/VISTA. The communication is produced and published at US taxpayer expense.