VISTA Overview: VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), the domestic equivalent to the Peace Corps, is a national service program sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service. VISTA offers members a modest living allowance in exchange for their commitment of a year of service. VISTA volunteers build permanent infrastructure in nonprofit organizations to help them more effectively bring individuals and communities out of poverty. For more information on VISTA and to submit an application through the on-line portal, please go to http://www.americorps.gov . For searching the posting, please enter Early Childhood Education and Financial Stability as the program name. Additional information on Americorp VISTA is available at www.VISTAcampus.org .

To apply: Please submit resume to April Canetto at acanetto@ntauw.org or apply on-line at http://www.americorps.gov.

North Texas Area United Way: The mission of the North Texas Area United Way is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities through providing leadership in identifying and evaluating needs in our communities, collaborating with other systems of care to help solve issues and developing initiatives which produce the most effective results for children and families. NTAUW is a community-minded organization, supporting programs and services which address improving outcomes related to Education, Income and Health. Through these three priorities, United Way strategically guides funding between the demographic groups of Older Adults and the Disabled, Youth, Children and Families.

Placement: The North Texas Area United Way will be conducting national and local searches for qualified candidates to fill 2 VISTA positions.

• Early Childhood Education Coordinator
• Financial Stability Coordinator

Required Skills and Education: Community Organization, Education, Fund raising/Grant Writing, Leadership, Public Speaking, Writing/Editing, General Skills. Must possess a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in experience and education. 

Member Duties: VISTA members will develop community relationships, research quality improvement frameworks, develop and implement a logic model for improving the system of early childhood education, educate the community on the importance of quality early childhood education, develop training for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA), recruit community volunteers for VITA program, integrate asset-development into VITA program, educate and promote VITA strategies with community organizations, expand VITA into high-risk urban and rural communities and partner with financial institutions to develop non-predatory financial products

Program Benefits: Childcare assistance if eligible, Choice of Education Award or End of Service Stipend, Education award upon successful completion of service, Health Coverage, Living Allowance, Relocation Allowance, Stipend, Training. 

Service Description: This project will positively impact poverty in the North Texas Area through two primary strategies. The first strategy is to build a more comprehensive system of quality childcare in our community. Activities include developing relationships with our community's child care providers and pre-k government institutions; forming a logic model based on the tenants of quality childcare, the current barriers that we have in our community and the proposed solutions. The logic model utilized will guide financial and volunteer resources into the arenas determined to be the most needed and effective in improving the quality of childcare. The activities related to increasing the quality of childcare will also consist of providing technical assistance to current childcare providers and the community at-large in developing a successful Childcare Resource and Referral organization in our community, activities related to this include strategies that increase professional development opportunities through collaboration and mentoring and offering parent education on the importance of quality child care. The second strategy of the VISTA project includes incorporating strategies for directly increasing the financial stability of low-income families in our community. The activities related to this will include expansion of current Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) led by United Way and determining how to be more holistic in our VITA approach. Additional activities include how to integrate asset-development into VITA, how to most effectively expand our VITA program into low income neighborhoods and how to increase capacity of the program through urban and rural program development. The project will include coordinating with America and Texas Saves as well as other savings promotion organizations to establish savings campaigns in our community and coordinating these with our marketing department, Community Impact Income Council and VITA program.

To apply: Please submit resume to April Canetto at acanetto@ntauw.org or apply on-line at http://www.americorps.gov.