This summer, the U of A Center for Community Engagement's AmeriCorps VISTA program led a strong initiative to engage post-grad college students in a 10-week direct service role to strengthen and support CCE programming during the summer months.

The AmeriCorps VISTA program focuses on making sustainable changes in communities around the nation within sectors that affect poverty, including education, public health, climate, access to benefits and much more. With this focus on alleviating poverty and aiding communities in fighting their toughest battles, AmeriCorps advocates that to understand a population best, you must live among them as their neighbor. And who is better suited to serve the U of A population than passionate, service-minded U of A graduates?

The CCE 2023 VISTA team is made up of four summer associate VISTAs, two VISTA members and a VISTA leader. The team has been successful in facilitating innovative programming efforts across the U of A Center for Community Engagement.

Beginning their service mid-June, the primary focus was on capacity-building, managing essential operations such as the campus food pantry, advising student interns in preparing each of their programs for the upcoming semester and overall, crossing off a handful of tasks which have been on the "CCE to-do list" for as long as a decade or more - from painting projects to increase student engagement, to completely organizing the entire pantry basement.

As the weeks progressed, many more projects were completed.

• One team member — Paul Gramling — completely redesigned a more efficient and sustainable framework for the Razorback Food Recovery team to best manage and utilize their data.
• Annette Quinn and Shealynn Lander managed the Full Circle Food Pantry each open shift, intentionally engaging in face-to-face service with clients and implementing a new grant that allows for fresh produce to be provided until November (plus, an unforgettable amount of hours organizing thousands of green bean cans by date).
• Another team member, Thomas Pieralisi, engaged in daily research assessing how we may bridge the gaps in civic engagement on campus, thus developing a new program called Democracy Fellows.
• Emma Ferguson advised student interns in meaningful relationship-building strategies for mentoring.
• VISTA Abriana Ciabattari led a focus on digital student engagement by developing a social media strategy for the pantry, curating instructional videos for primary stakeholders and designing new merchandise.

During the last couple weeks of summer before classes began, the VISTA team focused efforts on volunteer recruitment, tabling and strategic event planning throughout A-week to ensure student engagement and student understanding of the plethora of resources and opportunities available to them through the Volunteer Action Center and the Center for Community Engagement.

With more than double the normal amount of service hours in a summer allocated to running essential operations, as well as brainstorming areas of expansion, the CCE was able to move towards an increased intentionality on sustainability, efficiency, accessibility and inclusion.

Each VISTA ended this summer with an empowerment found in honing their unique skillsets and realizing their ability to be changemakers. While four of the summer members will be exploring other exciting opportunities this fall, two VISTA members will stay on board as a mentor programs adviser VISTA and CCE outreach VISTA.

Claire Allison, the director of the Center for Community Engagement, stated, "The CCE has hosted AmeriCorps VISTAs since 2017, and in that time members have greatly increased the capacity of VAC programs and expanded opportunities for UARK students to make an impact on campus and in their community through volunteering. The addition of summer associates this year has been instrumental in preparing our food programs for increased services to meet the needs of our clients and neighbors. We are grateful to each of the members for their service."

Are you interested in potentially becoming an AmeriCorps VISTA post-undergrad? The CCE is recruiting VISTA positions. If you'd like any more information about the benefits of working with AmeriCorps and making a change in your community, don't hesitate to reach out to Alexis Humm at anhumm@uark.edu.

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