VISTA Road Tripping to Denver

I am always jazzed when given the opportunity to discuss theories of social inequality – why our society is the way it is, the history of how our systems and policies came to be, and the root causes of social injustices – but what I’m most interested in is action. The “What now?” question. Putting mindful theory into practical action. And this is what led me to become an AmeriCorps VISTA member – where I get to fight poverty through education by building the capacity of local organizations to better serve our communities.

As the VISTA Leader with the City of Saint Paul VISTA Program through Mayor Chris Coleman’s office, I’ve been given the unique opportunity to see firsthand how our policy makers are creating positive change within the City of Saint Paul, while simultaneously getting to be a part of the grassroots-nonprofit solutions for social change.  Our 21 VISTA members are serving Saint Paul’s educational efforts in schools and nonprofits focusing on everything from parental engagement and after-school programming to volunteer management and organization fundraising. I get to see theory put into action everyday by the VISTA members I serve with who are fighting poverty with passion and trying tenaciously to close the education opportunity gap in Saint Paul.

Another awesome component of my year of service is the amazing opportunity given to me and ten St. Paul VISTA members to attend the National Service-Learning Conference as a service-learning project! We are eleven strong and road-tripping from Saint Paul to Denver for a six-day learning excursion, volunteering throughout the entire conference and getting the opportunity to network with hundreds of other professionals in the service-learning field. As a cohort, we are familiar with hands-on service-learning projects, volunteering as a group on both 9/11 and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for two national days of service. On 9/11 we helped put the gardens to bed at one of our VISTA sites, the Community Design Center of MN, and for MLK Day we sorted donations for Arc’s Value Village in Saint Paul.

Some of my VISTA cohort members have asked me the question: “How do I fight racism; or poverty; or injustice?” – not knowing that they are already fighting for justice through their year of service by being a part of organizations fighting to close the education opportunity gap, and by being a part of the community service-learning projects. All of these actions are theories put into practice: if organizations see a community need and then determine strategies to provide for that need, then all organizations are, in effect, the application of solution-based theories through programming, resource sharing, and even community-building. And we as VISTA members get to be a part of that action plan through service-learning and other hands on challenges to racial and economic disparities. 

We are so excited to be given the opportunity to volunteer with the National Service-Learning Conference as a means to strengthen our own tool belts in this anti-poverty work, and to gain some more applied action experience during our year of service. Thank you NYLC for this incredible opportunity!

Angie Brown is a VISTA Leader in the City of Saint Paul VISTA Program