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AMERICORPS PROJECT COORDINATOR MANUAL

By: Anthony Azari

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
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United Way of Weld

County..4

Recruitment and the Recruitment

Cycle.5

Assessment

Grant Writing

Supervisor Orientations

VISTA Committee

VISTA Leader Retention and Use

VISTA Supervisor Orientation

Common Problems With CNCS

Common Problems With VISTAs

VISTA Project Year

Glossary

Helpful Resources
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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the role of becoming an AmeriCorps VISTA Project Coordinator. Taking on

this role is a huge responsibility to your community as well as to your organization.
During the first few months of being a project coordinator, you will be inundated with a
variety of terms, procedures, and functions. While there is a allot of information upfront,
much of this information will become second nature to you. In order for this project to be
successful you must make the project your own. This project will grow and change
overtime and with it will come new opportunities and challenges. I encourage you to
develop your own processes that will be successful for you and your organization.

Please utilize this guide and add to it what is needed. The ultimate mission is to make
sure that VISTA remains operational here in Weld County. Without VISTA, many of the
needed advancements in services would not occur. Please contact me with any questions
or concerns and I wish you all the best in your upcoming ventures.

Best,

Anthony Azari
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Project Coordinator 2016

United Way of Weld County And VISTA

This section will give you a brief overview of the history of the VISTA Project at
United Way of Weld County. This information is crucial to know for advertising of the
program as well as for an understanding of the programs legacy and where the project has
been. Much of the information has been gathered over a short period of time that has
been gleaned from multiple sources

In 2007, the AmeriCorps VISTA Project was founded at United Way. Michael Muskin
was the original founder of the project. At that time, Michael was not the direct
coordinator of the project but he was the initial party that spear headed the project.
Michael had hear a presentation from CNCS about the programmatic benefits of
AmeriCorps VISTA in the community. After hearing this presentation he decided that he
wanted to pursue a project at UWWC due to the poverty in Weld County.

Michael took this project to the United Way board which did not receive much support
due to the enormous financial cost of the project. After numerous board meetings and
discussions the project was finally approved. The project started out with only seven
sites with seven members in 2007. All of the projects were local and were apart of
numerous local non-profits.

Over the course of numerous years, the project grew to over 17 sites with four of them in
in Northeast Colorado. Additionally, to add sustainability to the project, United Way of
Weld County made a financial investment in two housing sites in the Greeley area. One
housing site is in association with the Disabled American Veterans Association of
Colorado. The other site is a VISTA house that can be located near UNC. Both these
properties exclusively support the VISTA Program as it is intended for VISTA use only.

Last year, United Way also incorporated Pikes Peak United Way as a VISTA site. PPUW
began incorporating VISTAs at their agency last year with four positions. It is UWWCs
intent to have them grow into their own project by the 2018 grant year.

This is just a brief overview of the history the VISTA Project with United Way of Weld
County. This project will change as the demands from CNCS change over time as well.
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United Way of Weld County Recruitment Cycle

The recruitment cycle has been broken down into three times of the year at United
Way of Weld County. We have two full year standard VISTA Member classes a year.
Once in March and the other in July. Additionally, we have a Summer Associate
recruitment cycle with associates starting in June. It is imperative that the recruitment
VISTA Leader makes every effort to bring on all VISTAs associated with VISTA
Positions by the time each class begins. Below is a brief overview of how the cycle
occurs. There have been numerous incidences within the VISTA Projects history that has
had VISTAs start later than usual. If a class can be started later with more slots filled
that is the more preferable route to take than to only have some slots filled and having to
start two separate groups of VISTAs.

The recruitment cycle begin with reaching out to all sub-sites to see if they are interested
in continuing. Some sites will be fazing out, some will not have funding, and others will
just not want to continue the program all together.
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GLOSSARY

E-Grants: E Grants is the federal system where all AmeriCorps Information is

stored. E-Grants is the primary platform that you will utilize to submit all
documents requested by CNCS

Volunteer Activity Description (VAD): Is the guide that each agency uses during the
course of the VISTAs year. VADs should be followed over the course of the entire
project year

Service Description: This is the opportunity announcement for the particular

position.

0037:This is the VISTA AmeriCorps Project account. This is a very crucial code
that will be utilized much of the time

CI: This stands for Community Impact. See United Way manual for further
information

RD: This stand for Resource Department. See United Way manual for further
information.

Project Number: This is our current grant number. This number will be needed for
any communication with CNCS that is not directly through Ventana.

Grant Officer (GO): This is the head individual for the State Office here in
Colorado.

Program Officer (PO): This is Ventanas Position. She is our main point of contact

Corporation for National And Community Service (CNCS): This is the Federal
Agency that manages all VISTA and AmeriCorps Projects
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HELPFUL RESOURCES

VISTA 101:
https://www.nationalservice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/VISTA101.pdf

VISTA 201:
https://www.vistacampus.gov/resources/vista-201

VISTA CAMPUS:
www.vistacampus.gov

E-Grants:
https://egrants.cns.gov/

How To: Performance Measures:

https://www.nationalservice.gov/resources/performance-measurement/how-use-
cncs-national-performance-measure-instructions

AmeriCorps VISTA Google Drive

https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?
hl=en&passive=true&continue=https://www.google.com/

Username: UWWCVistaleader@gmail.com
Password:UnitedWay
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Payment Management System:

https://pms.psc.gov/

F Drive