KidSight Hosts Two AmeriCorps VISTA Members

KidSight is excited to announce that we have been approved as a host agency for 2 full-time VISTA members! AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program designed to alleviate poverty. KidSight will provide the supervision and support to members who commit to a 1-year term of service with our agency and AmeriCorps will pay the costs of the living stipends and benefits for the VISTA members. These positions will help KidSight by making us stronger and better able to assist children and families in poverty.

In the coming year, KidSight’s VISTA members will help us build our enhanced follow-up program, which we are calling the KidSight Vision Care Network (KVCN). The KVCN’s primary goal will be to help more families access quality vision care, especially those families who have barriers like poverty or no insurance that make it hard for them to get to the eye doctor. We envision our enhanced follow up will be more like a case management model- where we will be able to assist a family throughout the process. The VISTA members are critical to our success, since they will be building up our program capacity and defining some of the program structure. One VISTA member will identify high need areas in the Kansas City metro, conduct targeted outreach to secure partnerships with majority low-income child care centers and preschools, leverage partnerships with vision practices, and establish the policies and procedures to help families afford glasses and/or vision correction procedures. The second VISTA will assist us in increasing our capacity by working with our volunteer coordinator to develop and implement recruitment strategies to reach new pools of potential volunteers, and will improve tactics within our fundraising plan. We will pilot the KVCN in the Kansas City area and St. Louis, with our ultimate goal to expand it to cover the entire state.

In return for their service, the Corporation for National Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, provides VISTA members with orientation and training, a living stipend, settling in and transportation costs, childcare benefits, and a basic health care plan. Upon completion of their one-year term, VISTA members have the option of receiving a cash award or the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. They are also eligible to have their school loans deferred during their term of service. Also, AmeriCorps VISTA members receive one year of Federal Non-Competitive (NCE) hiring eligibility, which provides advantages in the federal hiring process. KidSight VISTAs will serve under the Literacy KC’s VISTA program, which will give them a cohort of other VISTAs for support and networking.

Do you need more high-quality professional experience before going to graduate school? Do you know someone who is a mid-career professional that wants to break into the nonprofit sector? These one-year AmeriCorps VISTA positions are the perfect opportunity! Please share this story and apply today! Want more information on AmeriCorps VISTA? CLICK HERE.

Ready to apply to be a KidSight VISTA member CLICK HERE.