The Ohio CDC Association AmeriCorps VISTA Project, created in 1995 as a partnership between the Ohio CDC Association and the Corporation for National and Community Service, places AmeriCorps VISTA Members every June or July at OCDCA member organizations throughout the state.
AmeriCorps VISTA Members are full-time volunteers that serve at a non-profit organization and focus their efforts on building organizational, administrative, and financial capacity for organizations that fight illiteracy, improve health services, foster economic development, strengthen community groups, and otherwise assist low-income communities.
AmeriCorps VISTA Members develop programs to meet a need, write grants, and recruit and train volunteers. They do not provide direct service, which is defined as the act of providing services to the identified clients of a program.
Any benefits and terms and conditions of this program, are available to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity or expression, political affiliation, marital or parental status, genetic information and military service.
Ohio CDC Association currently has two types of AmeriCorps VISTA slots available: Cost-Share and Standard. Cost-Share AmeriCorps Members specifically develop and create homeownership education and counseling programs, foreclosure prevention programs, home improvement and home repair programs, IDA homeownership programs, affordable housing, and activities to address vacant and abandoned properties. Funding for the Cost-Share AmeriCorps VISTA Members comes from the Ohio Housing Trust Fund (OHTF). Standard AmeriCorps VISTA Members can focus on a range of activities that build capacity through the creation or expansion of programs that are designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty.
AmeriCorps VISTA Program Impact
Number of volunteers recruited since 2020: 4,183
Number of volunteer service hours since 2020: 14,775
Number of organizations who have received capacity building since 2020: 405
Dollars resources generated in cash since 2020: $619,139
Dollar resources generated in-kind since 2020: $53,268
Total number of full-time AmeriCorps VISTAs since start of program: 804
