Our Project |
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Initiative
We are the UW-Parkside AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) Project. We serve the Racine and Kenosha County communities. Our project initiative works from cradle to career. Our VISTAs work at a range of nonprofit and city organizations with missions that vary from helping children reach educational mile markers to working to helping adults achieve sustainable employment in order to move out of poverty. The VISTAs work on complementary projects that assist low-income populations to achieve success in early literacy, primary and secondary school, higher education, and job training. While each VISTA is placed at a nonprofit working towards their own mission and specified VISTA project, as a whole we work to alleviate poverty in the Racine and Kenosha communities through leveraging resources, recruiting and managing volunteers, and developing sustainable programming.
We currently have six VISTAs serving in Racine and we are working on expanding to Kenosha. Our current sites are Racine County UW-Extension, Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin, Lakeside Curative Services, Racine County Workforce Development Center, Focus on Community and the Racine Revitalization Partnership.
We are the UW-Parkside AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) Project. We serve the Racine and Kenosha County communities. Our project initiative works from cradle to career. Our VISTAs work at a range of nonprofit and city organizations with missions that vary from helping children reach educational mile markers to working to helping adults achieve sustainable employment in order to move out of poverty. The VISTAs work on complementary projects that assist low-income populations to achieve success in early literacy, primary and secondary school, higher education, and job training. While each VISTA is placed at a nonprofit working towards their own mission and specified VISTA project, as a whole we work to alleviate poverty in the Racine and Kenosha communities through leveraging resources, recruiting and managing volunteers, and developing sustainable programming.
We currently have six VISTAs serving in Racine and we are working on expanding to Kenosha. Our current sites are Racine County UW-Extension, Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin, Lakeside Curative Services, Racine County Workforce Development Center, Focus on Community and the Racine Revitalization Partnership.
Projects/VISTAs
Racine County Workforce Development Center/Racine Public Library:
Ciara Hartzog: Ciara is building capacity at the Racine County Workforce Development Center/Library by providing support to bridge the technical knowledge gap of some limited income job seekers and providing electronic means for low income Veterans to locate and acquire benefits.
Racine County UW-Extension:
Sharon Musser: Sharon is building capacity at the Racine County UW-Extension by building programs focused on emergent literacy, emotion coaching, and financial literacy to help families and young children living in poverty be successful in their future educational pursuits.
Lakeside Curative Services:
Dreams Abbott: Dreams is building capacity at Lakeside Curative Services through research and outreach identifying best practice models, community resources, and opportunities for community collaboration to expand preparedness programming for youth and adults with disabilities.
Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin:
Marc Pigeon: Marc is building capacity at the Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin by developing communications, marketing, and fund raising systems to increase community visibility and knowledge of the impact of the work they are doing to support veterans as they transition out of homelessness.
Racine Revitalization Partnership:
Molly Lake: Molly is building capacity at the Racine Revitalization Partnership by assisting in developing job training and pre-apprenticeship programs, developing resources through grant writing, and developing a communications plan in order to support the impact of RRP to build a better Racine.
Focus on Community:
Distarcha Dixon: Star is building capacity at Focus on Community by developing a new tracking system for job-seeking skill development programming for youth, and developing more effective programs to be delivered to high school youth, young adults and young families interested in developing their job-seeking skills as well as creating an assessment system to measure the efficacy and impact of the new programming.
Racine County Workforce Development Center/Racine Public Library:
Ciara Hartzog: Ciara is building capacity at the Racine County Workforce Development Center/Library by providing support to bridge the technical knowledge gap of some limited income job seekers and providing electronic means for low income Veterans to locate and acquire benefits.
Racine County UW-Extension:
Sharon Musser: Sharon is building capacity at the Racine County UW-Extension by building programs focused on emergent literacy, emotion coaching, and financial literacy to help families and young children living in poverty be successful in their future educational pursuits.
Lakeside Curative Services:
Dreams Abbott: Dreams is building capacity at Lakeside Curative Services through research and outreach identifying best practice models, community resources, and opportunities for community collaboration to expand preparedness programming for youth and adults with disabilities.
Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin:
Marc Pigeon: Marc is building capacity at the Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin by developing communications, marketing, and fund raising systems to increase community visibility and knowledge of the impact of the work they are doing to support veterans as they transition out of homelessness.
Racine Revitalization Partnership:
Molly Lake: Molly is building capacity at the Racine Revitalization Partnership by assisting in developing job training and pre-apprenticeship programs, developing resources through grant writing, and developing a communications plan in order to support the impact of RRP to build a better Racine.
Focus on Community:
Distarcha Dixon: Star is building capacity at Focus on Community by developing a new tracking system for job-seeking skill development programming for youth, and developing more effective programs to be delivered to high school youth, young adults and young families interested in developing their job-seeking skills as well as creating an assessment system to measure the efficacy and impact of the new programming.
University of Wisconsin-Parkside VISTA Project
900 Wood Rd, Tallent Hall
Kenosha, WI 53141
262-595-2597
900 Wood Rd, Tallent Hall
Kenosha, WI 53141
262-595-2597