VISTA, AmeriCorps workers ‘godsend’ to local agencies

By JOHN CANNON

ASHLAND — “It has been a godsend for us,” Ann Perkins, executive director of Safe Harbor, said of the many AmeriCorps and VISTA workers who have labored at the Ashland-based domestic violence shelter in the last decade.

“We have gotten some great employees for maybe a third of what we would have to pay for a regular employee,” she said. “The programs have allowed us to better serve the needs of our clients without increasing our costs.”

Safe Harbor, which currently has two VISTA workers and one AmeriCorps worker on its staff, may soon qualify for more, as will other non-profit agencies.

President Barack Obama recently signed a $5.7 billion national service bill that will eventually more than triple the number of VISTA and AmeriCorps workers from 75,000 to 250,000.

While similar in nature and operated by the same federal agency — the Corporation for National Service — AmeriCorps workers concentrate on providing direct services to the clients of the non-profit agencies they serve, while VISTA workers concentrate on “capacity building,” said Steve Towler, executive director of the United Way of Northeastern Kentucky, which oversees nine VISTA workers serving agencies in Boyd and Greenup counties.

VISTA workers are to use their time to increase the “sustainability” of their agencies through fundraising and creating and expanding programs, Towler said.

“My task is to leave a legacy,” said Ryan Faulkner, a VISTA worker at the Community Kitchen in Ashland. “That means that when I leave the programs and projects that I have worked on will continue. If they do, that means that what I have done will have a continuing impact.”

AmeriCorps and VISTA workers do not do what they do for the money. In fact, they do not receive a “salary.” Instead, they receive a “living stipend” that does not even equal minimum wage.

“It’s right around $800 a month for 30 to 40 hours a week,” Towler said.

However, Perkins said VISTA and AmeriCorps workers do receive health care insurance and, if necessary, help with child care expenses and are paid for mileage. Depending on their household income, VISTA and AmeriCorps workers also qualify for food stamps.

At the end of their stint, they can qualify for up to $5,000 in education grants or lesser amounts in direct payments.

“When you add everything together, they receive pay and benefits equaling about $20,000 a year,” Perkins said. “That’s not bad, and the experience can change your life forever.”

About five years ago, the United Way of Northeastern Kentucky, which raises funds for non-profit agencies in Boyd, Greenup, Carter, Lawrence and Elliott counties, was asked by state officials in Frankfort to oversee the VISTA program in its region, Towler said.

“Since we already were working with the non-profit agencies that could use VISTA workers, it seemed like a good fit for us,” he said. “And it has been.”

The United Way now has VISTA workers placed at Neighbors Helping Neighbors — the umbrella agency raising funds to renovate the former Johnson’s Dairy building into a permanent home for CAReS, River Cites Harvest, The Dressing Room, the Community Kitchen and Ashland Area Presbyterian Ministries — and also at CAReS, Hillcrest-Bruce Mission, Shelter of Hope, Two Hearts Pregnancy Center, River Cities Harvest, Community Kitchen, Helping Hands in Greenup and the Red Cross of Northeast Kentucky in Greenup County.

CASA of Boyd County and Safe Harbor also have a VISTA workers offered through a statewide program.

Not only have VISTA and AmeriCorps workers been an excellent source of low cost labor for Safe Harbor, the two programs have helped develop some excellent full-time employees of the agency, Perkins said.

“Some of my best employees started here as VISTA or AmeriCorps workers,” she said. “I have hired a ton of AmeriCorps workers. After watching their work through VISTA and AmeriCorps, I knew I wanted to hire them if a position became open.”

Leslie Moore, the former executive director of CAReS, was a VISTA worker for Neighbors Helping Neighbors before being named to the CAReS position, and Mike Peters, now a case manager at CAReS, began as a VISTA workers for the agency.

Trish Hall, who succeed Moore as CAReS director last fall when Moore accepted a teaching position in Greenup County, called the agency’s current VISTA worker, Kathy Schneider, “an invaluable asset for the agency.”

As the nationwide VISTA program has expanded, Hall said she would love for CAReS to add a second VISTA position. However, that may not be possible if the program requires the non-profit agency cover 40 percent of the cost of providing a second VISTA worker.

“We definitely have the need for another VISTA worker or two or three, but we are not in a position to add to our costs,” Hall said. “Our budget already is strained.”

As the director of the Dressing Room and operations coordinator for River Cities Harvest, Lucy Davis oversees two non-profit agencies. She said Jennifer Lynd, the VISTA worker for River Cities Harvest, “has been amazing in the things she has done” including planning fundraising events, coordinating food drives, organizing a mailing list and developing a newsletter.

Davis said Lynd is “very dedicated to the cause” of River Cities Harvest, which picks up food at supermarkets and restaurants that otherwise would be discarded and distributes it to agencies that feed the hungry. “That passion is the key. In this kind of work, you have to have a passion — a heart — for what you are doing. If you don’t, you soon will burn out.”

Davis said she would love to have a VISTA worker at the Dressing Room, formerly known at Federated Charities, but space does not permit one.

“The rules say you have to have a desk for a VISTA worker, and I don’t have space for a desk,” Davis said. “Hopefully, when we get into The Neighborhood, I will get a VISTA worker.”

Alfreda Moore, executive director of the Community Kitchen, said she does not know how some non-profit agencies could survive without their VISTA or AmeriCorps workers.

“It allows them to get an excellent support person that can help the agencies build capacity through fundraising, grant writing and the like,” Moore said. “And you don’t have to pay that person a salary. It is just a wonderful program.”

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