New Curricula

Prepare Volunteers for

Anti-Poverty Work

For more than 35 years, volunteers have been waging America's war on poverty through service in AmeriCorps*VISTA. This summer, the latest recruits will gain more targeted skills thanks to a revised training program crafted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and its partner, Bank Street College.

The new curricula are being driven by changing demands on volunteers and their supervisors. "In an age of evaluation, we're training supervisors to measure performance in new, outcome-based ways," says Nancy Henry, program director. "Also, we're adding more skill-building around mobilizing resources and generating volunteers."

Henry adds that the emphasis today is on building capacity and sustainability. Volunteers aren't supposed to drop in and start something that can't survive after they leave, which is typically a one-year term. Henry says a big part of the training is to equip volunteers for a "24/7 commitment" and for fostering cross-cultural collaborations. "We try to prepare them to enter a new community and understand their role is to help the community facilitate its own solutions."

Some 8,000 people a year join AmeriCorps*VISTA, a domestic counterpart of the Peace Corps. The volunteers are "just as idealistic and driven to do good things" today as when the program started, says Henry, and they come from all walks of life. "When we do these trainings, we say it's the most heterogeneous classroom you'll ever walk into," Henry remarks. "It makes for a lively mix!"