Americorps is kind of like the Peace Corps, but domestically, which means still in the United States. There are all kinds of jobs you can do for Americorps, and different branches to be in. The different branches have different benefits and my branch is VISTA which stands for Volunteers In Service To America. I think LBJ started it, but I'm not sure. VISTAs focus on indirect service. So rather than planting trees or building houses, you might volunteer coordinate at a nonprofit or do my job, which is to coordinate an after school mentoring program.
My position is a little tricky because I work at a college, Concordia College in Moorhead Minnesota, but not for the college - in that I don't get paid by the college. Yes, I do get paid some, but I'm encouraged to think of my living allowance as a stipend and not a paycheck, and myself as a volunteer and not so much "having a job." But more about that later.
The Linking Up program I coordinate is a partnership between Concordia College (where the college-student mentors come from), Moorhead Healthy Community Initiative (a local nonprofit and base of operations for Karin, my co-coordinator, partner in crime, and another VISTA) and Moorhead Public Schools (Horizon Middle School - where the 6th, 7th and 8th graders who attend our program go). Most people want to think of this program as something that helps needy kids, but that's not necessarily the case. The kids in the program are any kids who go to the middle school whose teachers/guidance counselor thought they might benefit from the program. It is just as much a benefit to the college students in the educational psychology class who are going to be teachers one day.
There are other things about my position which are complicated and confusing. For instance, I'm also supposed to be doing research on anti-racisim for the training and participating in the subcommittees of the Training Our Campus Against Racisim intitative (TOCAR), and I am. It's just that part hasn't been as consistent, and doesn't take up as much of my concentration as the Linking Up program. But surely, I've learned a lot in the little more than two months that I've been here. However, when most people ask me about my job, I don't say much about this part because it requires a lot of detail and nuanced explaination, and some of the topics I work around, like White Privilege can be controversial for some people. And I like to save conversations that require that much attention for occasions like Christmas dinner, or when I've been drinking.
Now, having told you all that you might ask, "What are the benefits of being an Americorps VISTA volunteer?" Well, first of all you get to learn to be thrifty. Something I've always enjoyed being so therefore the living allowence which is technically poverty wages (maybe 115% of what it means to be living in poverty in Moorhead) doesn't bother me all that much. One of my favorite benefits is that as a VISTA I qualify for housing assistance and therefore I don't have to pay rent on my beautiful apartment that I love so much!
Other benefits you get through Americorps are health insurance for your term of service, and at the end of the year an Education Award of nearly $5,000 to use to go to school or apply towards student loans. It sounds like a mere drop in the bucket (toward my loans) until someone pointed out to me What job right out of college do you expect to get where you can put that much money toward your loans at the end of a year? (Good point, Kyle!) And my loans are defered for the term of service and Americorps pays the interest that accrues during deferement. (We'll see about that because I'm having some problems with my loan consolation company.)
My position comes with added benefits too, because I work at a college I can work out for free, and ride the bus for free. Sometimes I can come to campus events which include a free meal. I can (shhh!) sneak on campus and do my laundry in the dorms because although it's no cheaper it's much more convenient than riding my bike to the one open laurdromatt in Moorhead!
In additon to all the glamor of the VISTA life, you get to work toward the ultimate goal of Americorps which is to eliminate poverty in the United States, which will probably never be achieved in my lifetime. But at least when everyone sits around the table bitching I can feel that I at least did something about it for a time, and maybe in some small way, I hope, made a difference. You know the saying, "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll have food for a lifetime." At Americorps training I heard, "if you start a school of fishing you'll change the future of generations."
But that was just tha background info. Now the stage is set for this wonderful blog of my year of service. (Americorps term of service: 1 year. Peace Corps: 2 - something I forgot to say earlier). Now that I've filled you in on all that what do I actually have to say today? How about this?
Recipe of the weekend: Squash Stew. See allrecipes.com Vegitarian. Whomever posted it is right about how difficult it is to peel an acorn squash. They don't get ripe like a cantalope. It's like peeling a rock. Especially with my dull as shit potato peeler. It's in the crockpot right now so I can't comment on how it will taste. More later!
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