The New York Campus Compact
AmeriCorps VISTA Program
New York Campus Compact (NYCC) has been partnering with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) since 2003 in order to assist member campuses in increasing the number of faculty, students and community members making a difference through volunteer service and service-learning. VISTAs have played pivotal roles in helping colleges and universities to address community needs, develop leadership among their students and improve collaborations between the institution and the community.
The NYCC VISTA program enables colleges and universities to better respond to pressing issues facing low-income communities by improving the quality of and capacity for campus-community service and service-learning programs. These campuses build community-campus partnerships to mobilize intellectual, human, and material resources to address community-identified issues of concern.
NYCC AmeriCorps VISTAs
AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to
America) is one of five national service programs administered by
CNCS. For more than 40 years, it has been at the forefront of building
capacity of communities to fight poverty. VISTA members devote a year
or more of their lives to challenge poverty’s root causes. They
achieve this by mobilizing community volunteers and local resources,
and by increasing the capacity of individuals in low-income
neighborhoods to rely on themselves to make positive changes. Although
nationwide most VISTAs serve in human service agencies, Campus Compact
has pioneered the use of this resource to enhance civic engagement in
higher education.