Giving a big #AmeriThanks to AmeriCorps VISTA members!

It’s AmeriCorps Week! Organizations around the country are taking this opportunity to acknowledge the work of national service members that participate in programs such as AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, Senior Corps, and National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). In that spirit, we want to honor the incredible work of the AmeriCorps VISTA members serving through the Afterschool Alliance.

The Afterschool Alliance has hosted an AmeriCorps VISTA program for over 10 years, placing nearly 200 VISTA members at 35 statewide afterschool networks and in 15 STEM ecosystems. VISTA members that serve through the Afterschool Alliance facilitate projects focused on afterschool program sustainability, expanding access to summer and afterschool meals, building community partnerships to offer STEM learning opportunities, developing mentoring and literacy programs for young men of color, and supporting distribution of resources and curriculum on substance misuse prevention.

AmeriCorps VISTA members serving with the Afterschool Alliance have left an indelible mark on their organizations. In Nebraska, VISTAs were crucial in developing and establishing the Think Make Create mobile maker labs that support STEM learning in rural afterschool programs, a concept other state networks are now implementing. VISTA members based at the Arizona SciTech Ecosystem play a key role in standing up the Chief Science Officers, a program in which youth are encouraged to explore science-based careers and interests while being trained to advocate for these opportunities in their communities. The Chief Science Officers program is now implemented in several STEM ecosystems across the country.

This year, our VISTA members are continuing to provide needed support and leadership to their state networks and STEM ecosystems. Here are some of the highlights of their work:

• Brianne Smith, Substance Misuse Prevention VISTA at Vermont Afterschool, held workshops for seven youth councils. The workshops included orientation and an introduction to participatory budgeting. Each council has an amount of funding to spend on youth-led initiatives in their community. The adult leads of the councils are working with the youth to choose focus areas for funding. As this is a recent, ongoing project, Brianne is working with the councils and adapting the workshops to fit their needs.
• Lily Tegner, Afterschool STEM Expansion VISTA at Alaska Afterschool Network, hosted a Light & Shadow virtual training for Leap Into Science, a nationwide grant program from the Franklin Institute. This program allows state leaders to train afterschool providers to deliver STEM literacy workshops. There are three training sessions in total which are free to participants. Twenty of their 27 organizations participated, and the training was recorded to allow the other organizations who missed the training to view. Lily also assembled 40 Light & Shadow Leap Into Science kits and 31 of the kits have been sent out to organizations. Learn more about the program here: https://www.akafterschool.org/leap-into-science.
• Khari Whitmore, STEM Ecosystem VISTA for EvanSTEM, assisted in founding a National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Junior chapter at the Family Focus Evanston site. Along with a few partners that include organizations and the public library, they were able to structure months’ worth of activities for the participants of the new NSBE chapter. Activities include kits where the participants can create their own speaker and headphones. Khari regularly facilitated meetings via Zoom.
• Brianna Kirschenbaum, Afterschool Sustainability VISTA at School’s Out Washington, recently organized a National Summer Learning Week event. Youth, policymakers, and program staff were in attendance to learn about the importance of summer learning. A state senator and two state representatives also attended to show their support.. Brianna’s role was to help find speakers for the panel discussion, create panel discussion questions, and design the PowerPoint presentation for the event.

You can learn more about our AmeriCorps VISTA program and our currently serving members on our AmeriCorps VISTA page. Inspired to serve? We accept applications on a rolling basis. You can learn more about our open positions here.

We’d like to thank the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for their generous and continued support for our AmeriCorps VISTA program.