AmeriCorps VISTA

What is VISTA?

AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) provides full-time members to nonprofit, faith-based and other community organizations, and public agencies to create and expand programs that ultimately bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty.

Through AmeriCorps VISTA, ordinary people provide extraordinary service in more than 1,200 projects nationwide. AmeriCorps VISTA members leverage human, financial, and material resources to increase the capacity of low-income communities across the country to solve their own problems.

AmeriCorps VISTA members spend at least one year in full-time service addressing the needs of low-income communities. All projects focus on building permanent infrastructure in nonprofit organizations to help them more effectively bring individuals and communities out of poverty. When VISTA members complete their service, they leave behind lasting solutions to some of our country's toughest problems.

Today, nearly 8,000 AmeriCorps VISTA members serve throughout the country—working to fight illiteracy, improve health services, create businesses, increase housing opportunities, bridge the digital divide, and strengthen the capacity of community organizations.

AmeriCorps VISTA is a program of the AmeriCorps agency, an independent federal agency created to connect Americans of all ages and backgrounds with opportunities to give back to their communities and their nation. AmeriCorps is made up of three programs: AmeriCorps VISTA; AmeriCorps State and National; and AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps). AmeriCorps also oversees AmeriCorps Seniors. Together these programs engage more than 1.5 million Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service each year.