On Monday, July 19^th, United Way welcomed three AmeriCorp VISTA volunteer s to Albany.  AmeriCorp VISTA is the national service program designed specifically to fight poverty. Founded in 1965 as Volunteers in Service to America and incorporated into the AmeriCorps network of programs in 1993, VISTA has been on the front lines in the fight against poverty in America for more than 40 years. VISTA is known as the “national” Peace Corps.

Three volunteers have relocated to Albany and have committed to serve full-time for one year at several area non-profit organizations. Stanley Joseph will serve with The Anchorage while Shanila Williams and Alesia Jackson will be at Strive to Thrive and Phoebe’s Network of Trust respectively.  The volunteers will focus on four main areas including capacity building, volunteer resources, fundraising and grant writing, and marketing. United Way plans to add up to six additional volunteers in the next 6-8 months who will be placed at similar non-profit workplaces to help fight poverty in our community.