Extension partnering with AmeriCorps VISTA to impact Nebraskans

There are new faces becoming a member of the ranks of Nebraska Extension, they usually have a really particular objective — to extend the capability and entry of Extension programming, particularly in catastrophe resilience and combatting poverty.

In 2021, Nebraska Extension earned grant funding from the AmeriCorps VISTA program, permitting for the hiring and coaching of AmeriCorps VISTA members to work on community-focused tasks encompassing meals entry, local weather resilient agriculture schooling and catastrophe preparedness and response.

AmeriCorps VISTA is a nationwide service program designed to alleviate poverty. President John F. Kennedy originated the concept for VISTA, which was based as Volunteers in Service to America in 1965. This system was integrated into the AmeriCorps community in 1993. Whereas AmeriCorps is thought for neighborhood service, VISTAS are charged with rising program capability, typically in administrative or neighborhood outreach roles.

Julien Hoffman, AmeriCorps VISTA program coordinator with Nebraska Extension, stated VISTAS at Nebraska have a wide range of tasks, from designing graphics and mailers and updating social media accounts to answering neighborhood questions and writing grants. Every VISTA place is exclusive, however all of them share the widespread objective serving to at-risk Nebraskans by way of increasing programming capabilities and attain.

“Once we select placements for VISTAs, we take a look at how this system may very well be expanded and the way that would positively affect the general public,” Hoffman stated. “Our VISTA program is designed to give attention to serving to individuals who have been by way of a catastrophe, and there are various varieties of disasters, together with pure and financial disasters, which may actually affect individuals who have a decrease revenue and are already in danger. And if you consider it, our state has been by way of some main disasters, with the flooding of 2019 after which the pandemic.”

Nebraska’s VISTA program can be distinctive in that few universities have utilized for this system, Hoffman stated. The grant can fund as much as 13 VISTA members, and Hoffman is recruiting for eight positions, which can be found all through the state. Candidates should have a bachelor’s diploma, and have the ability to decide to a full yr of service. There are at present two on board, one in Lincoln and one in Omaha. Hoffman stated AmeriCorps is usually considered a chance for youthful individuals, however VISTAs will be any age.

“It’s nice for college students who need to take a spot yr earlier than graduate faculty, however we’ve additionally labored with retirees who need to do it as a method to keep concerned of their neighborhood and do one thing actually fulfilling,” Hoffman stated. “It is also a chance for somebody who desires to strive one thing new, to serve their neighborhood and acquire new talent units.”

Sydney Sehi, a VISTA with the Douglas-Sarpy County Extension workplace, stated she utilized for this system to start working once more after a sequence of health-related setbacks. She is engaged on meals entry and concrete agriculture tasks. Being a VISTA allowed her to serve her neighborhood and work on tasks she was already captivated with — neighborhood gardening and neighborhood meals cooperatives — and stretch the talents she discovered getting her bachelor’s at Nebraska in anthropology and studio artwork.

“The celebs aligned, and it’s been nice to get to make use of these expertise once more,” Sehi stated. “I’ve been considering meals safety, and was one thing I’d been engaged on personally, in my neighborhood, for a yr.”

Now, Sehi is engaged on tasks meant to convey extra individuals to the desk — growing and sharing info on native meals safety packages, together with neighborhood gardens, meals banks and farmers markets, to profit each customers and producers. She’s additionally constructing out platforms for future communication with the neighborhood, and serving to some develop their very own meals.

“One of many large line gadgets on anybody’s price range is having the ability to feed themselves,” Sehi stated. “It impacts each facet of their lives.”

Extension’s VISTA program is already making an affect. Candace Hulbert, who has served because the Climate Prepared Farms VISTA for the previous yr, helped develop Climate Prepared Farms from a brand new thought right into a pilot challenge with 9 producers working towards making their operations extra resilient.

“[This experience] taught me the worth of serving the neighborhood and self-sacrifice,” Hulbert stated. “Once I began my service yr, Climate Prepared Farms was principally simply an thought, and I spent my service yr laying the groundwork for what a statewide resilient agriculture system would appear like. I’ve spent my service constructing the Climate Prepared Farms capability, increasing the challenge crew, grant writing to gather program funding, and creating monitoring methods.”

For Hulbert, finishing a VISTA service yr solidified a profession path she’d lengthy been considering pursuing.

“My service impressed my resolution to go to Cornell College to their Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences to get a grasp’s {of professional} research within the area of pure sources,” she stated. “This diploma is capstone centered and my challenge will focus on Climate Prepared Farms. I plan to spend my life combating the local weather disaster and serving to farmers and ranchers put together and get well from disasters.”