ISSUE
9: August 19, 2008
Happy
Anniversary VISTA!
VISTA,
Ohio Benefits Bank
VISTA,
1992-1993
Happy
Anniversary VISTA:
A Legacy 44 years in the making!
Dear
VISTAs and Friends,
This Wednesday, August 20, 2008, marks the 44th anniversary of passage
of our VISTA legislation. At 180,000 strong, VISTAs and alumni have
been continuously fighting poverty for 44 years.
You are part of the great legacy of national service that brings opportunities
for education, housing, health care, jobs, and so much more to low-income
families and individuals throughout our country. Thank you for your
service and dedication to VISTA and to them.
Every day, VISTAs across the country are working on a common goal:
to empower communities to eliminate poverty. I look forward to celebrating
45 years of service next year!
Sincerely,
Jean Whaley
VISTA Director
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VISTA,
Ohio Benefits Bank, Dayton
By
Charles Stough
| |
I
was among the earliest Peace Corps Volunteers, 1964-66 in Panama.
It was a time of great upheaval in U.S. society -- civil rights,
women's liberation, consumerism, antiwar activism, the sexual
revolution, environment, music, mass media -- all were in revolution.
Volunteerism was the way many of us participated. I ran a house-building
co-op that built 44 homes, using pressed-earth bricks that the
villagers and I made. |
VISTA was founded later. We overseas Volunteers, having learned other
languages, living in sometimes unhealthy or hostile places, thought
of VISTAs as “weekend campers.” VISTAs could live at home
and couldn't get involved in politics. In contrast, in Panama I participated
in several events of civil disobedience, such as marches on the alcalde's
office. It was how things got done in many countries -- including
the U.S., witness the civil rights and anti-war marches on Washington.
After
a career in journalism, my retirement to art and writing was interrupted
in 2007 by a call from an executive of the local Episcopal diocese,
inviting me to participate in the Ohio Benefit Bank (OBB). I became
a VISTA. My year resulted in more than 140 OBB counselors assigned
in three counties.
But clearly the revolution is over in both VISTA and Peace Corps.
Both services work closely with established charities and agencies,
with a premium on calm and decorum. We don't march on city council
meetings to get funds, we apply for grants. Today's volunteers get
pay and benefits that we wouldn't have thought of in 1964. Today's
projects in both services tend toward process instead of activism.
I recall an in-service training (IST) session during my VISTA service
in which the speaker extolled shining one's shoes and never complaining.
I was thinking how many thousands of years people wore shoes that
hurt, until finally in about my grandfather's time someone noticed
that right and left feet are shaped differently. If only someone had
complained sooner.
I was amused by a parallel between early Peace Corps and modern-day
VISTA service. In 1964, host countries were often suspicious of us
“Yanqui” interlopers parachuting in to set things right
in someone else's nation; in Dayton, the OBB was also greeted with
suspicion and hostility by a few very territorial social service bureaucrats.
In both positions I applied the same technique: If you can't move
an obstacle, go around it.
Peace Corps and VISTA service both have an important effect on volunteers
after their service tours. We learn that there is satisfaction in
sacrifice. We also emerge energized and educated in what needs to
be done. For becoming a better prepared participant in democracy,
I'm grateful.
VISTA,
1992-1993, North Dakota
By
Eileen Conoboy
| |
“Follow
your bliss.” That concept was foreign to me as I drove westward
from Virginia to North Dakota to join my cohort of VISTA trainees
back in 1992. Sitting in a Bismarck coffee shop a few days later
with people of all backgrounds, listening to a VISTA trainer expound
on the importance of doing what you love, I was fascinated by
this idea that you could follow a deliberate course in life and
do what makes you happy. |
As
a VISTA in a small North Dakota farming town, I trained volunteers,
wrote grants, accompanied battered women to the courthouse and hospital,
and worked with community groups to raise local awareness of domestic
violence. The focus of the assignment was grim enough but the mission
was uplifting, and the realization that I had skills that could make
things a bit easier on people around me surprised and invigorated
me.
I learned to work with people from all walks of life as a VISTA, and
I came to appreciate the shades of gray through which so much of life
transpires. I marveled at the cultural differences that distinguished
rural North Dakotans from their east coast counterparts, and I learned
it’s not just in the movies that people bake pies to welcome
their neighbors.
As my year in VISTA came to an end, I considered re-upping and spending
another year on the plains. Instead, I decided to take it a step further
and apply to the Peace Corps. Soon I found myself living in a mud
hut in West Africa, speaking Bambara and working to prevent malnutrition
among women and children in Mali. The skills I learned in VISTA –
flexibility, self-motivation, and problem-solving, among them –
were put to good use as I parlayed my domestic grassroots experience
into an international development setting.
For me, VISTA was the perfect precursor to the Peace Corps. Both programs
forced me off of auto-pilot and allowed me to become a part of something
much bigger than myself.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What is the Viewfinder?
A: VISTA means view-looking out on a broad expanse. The viewfinder, a toy that all generations of VISTAs recognize, was a kind of binocular that focused on points of interest, highlights, and snapshots in living color. The VISTA Viewfinder surveys in the landscape and zeroes in on service.
Q. Why the Viewfinder?
A. Here’s your direct link to connecting with other VISTAs, learning what they are doing, and helping to spread the message of VISTA and national service!
Q. How can I contribute?
A.
Have a story to tell? Submission ideas? Contact vistaoutreach@cns.gov.
Use the Viewfinder to highlight your VISTA service and share your
experiences with others across the country!
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