Prescott- The Yavapai County VISTA Project will expand in 2009 from 16 to 36 AmeriCorps VISTA members, reports Maggie Garvey, Program Director for the Yavapai County VISTA Project. The expansion will be funded by a grant from the Corporation for National Community Service awarded in early July to Prescott College for $266,014. A similar grant was also awarded this year to Youth Count, a non-profit out of Prescott Valley, for the remanding program costs of $468,038. Next year it is expected that the VISTA program will be fully housed at Prescott College, with a total grant of over $750,000 to support the increase in VISTA members.
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) is one of the Corporations oldest programs, providing full-time members to nonprofit, faith-based, other community organizations and public agencies, to create and expand programs that ultimately bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty. VISTA’s goal is to eradicate poverty and its effects by strengthening the non-profit civil sector, according to local Program Director Garvey. VISTA volunteers are funded on a cost-share basis, with local organizations providing partial funding through a community contribution to the Yavapai County VISTA Project. VISTA members receive a living allowance of $10,380 a year as well as deferment of federal student loans and a $4725 education award at the completion of their term of service. Studies show that 81 percent of former VISTA members continue to volunteer in their community following a term of service. Many of these members will stay in Yavapai County to continue employment in the service fields.
VISTA members in Yavapai County perform groundbreaking service across the County. Notable projects include: the Prescott Area Women’s Shelter, which was started by VISTA in 2007 and is now staffed with VISTA members; The Camp Verde Teens A’ Chillin Center, which is the only teen center in the Verde area; Prescott Creeks and the Watson Woods Project; Yavapai Big Brothers Big Sisters; The Coalition for Compassion and Justice; The City of Cottonwood Neighborhood Revitalization; Yavapai College Retiree Connection; and Prescott College’s own Ripple Project, which connects not for profits with students seeking to perform service learning or senior projects.
The history of VISTA in Yavapai County has been interwoven with Prescott College from the very start. Alumnus Angie Cole served as the first VISTA member in Yavapai County and working closely with College president Dr. Dan Garvey to expand the program in Yavapai County. Angie recruited Maggie to serve a year with Generations United of Yavapai County in 2006, which she completed and then stepped into the first Coordinator role for the project in 2007. Dr. Garvey served at that time on the Commission for Service and Volunteerism for the State of Arizona, at the request of former Governor Janet Napolitano. Dr. Garvey was himself a VISTA volunteer. The project’s expansion required that it find a new home and Prescott College’s values and commitment to service learning made it a natural fit, according to Maggie Garvey.
The timing was right for the expanded grant, according to Dr. Garvey, because of the $65 million in funding designated for AmeriCorps VISTA in President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act this past February and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act signed by President Obama in April. Serve America will increase service opportunities for Americans of all ages by increasing AmeriCorps positions throughout the country from 75,000 to 250,000 positions over the next eight years.
The Corporation for National Community Service, the nation’s largest grant maker supporting service and volunteering, oversees programs including AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, Senior Corps, National Civilian Community Corps and Learn and Serve. The Corporation engages four million Americans in service each year, including 75,000 AmeriCorps members, 492,000 Senior Corps volunteers, and 1.1 million Learn and Serve America students.
The community service ethic runs deep in the Garvey family. President Garvey, himself a former VISTA volunteer, is Maggie’s uncle. Her aunt, Barbara Garvey (wife of President Garvey) is the Coordinator for the Institute for Sustainable Social Change, a collaboration with Prescott College. Maggie’s mother, Gerry Garvey, is Director of the Coalition for Compassion and Justice, the program that runs Open Door. Maggie’s father, Dennis Garvey, is Dean of the Division of Life Long Learning at Yavapai College.
More on the Yavapai County VISTA Project is at ycvp.org. The local office is located at 336 N. Rush St. in Prescott. Maggie can be reached at 928-848-7868 or mgarvey@ycvp.org. More on AmeriCorps VISTA is at www.americorps.gov.
Prescott College offers a resident B.A. program through its main campus in Prescott, Ariz., as well as limited-residency B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. The College’s bioregional hub in Tucson serves students in southern Arizona. All programs emphasize student-directed, experience-based learning by doing, environmental and cultural awareness, and social justice. For more information please contact Mary Lin, M.Ed., Director of Marketing and Public Relations, 928-350-4503, pr@prescott.edu. More information is on the web at www.prescott.edu.
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