Celebrating 30 Years of AmeriCorps

This year marks the 30th year of the AmeriCorps program! We are excited to celebrate our wonderful VISTAs during AmeriCorps week, March 10-16. AmeriCorps VISTA members serve for a year building the capacity of local non-profit organizations and public agencies in the Northland with the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty. The Eco3 VISTA Corps focuses on addressing poverty holistically from various angles. Let’s learn a bit about what our VISTA members have been up to lately, and how they have been approaching their work.

Community development is a crucial and complex area of work. Our VISTAs CeCe, Simon, and Mikey are utilizing their skills to make a difference in our community.

Hover or click each photo to see what our VISTAs have been up to!

CeCe is working in food systems, sustainability, and economic vitality. She is helping develop a small-footprint grocery store in Lincoln Park and cultivates collaboration between businesses to boost community involvement.

CeCe

Simon is serving at Mentor North. He is building the capacity of the program by expanding activity passes that allow mentors and mentees to visit more places, do more activities, and connect with their communities.

Simon

At Carlton County, Mikey assisted with setting up a system to help schools around the county identify and assist students with housing and other important resources. Mikey especially enjoyed delivering presents to families during the holiday season.

Mikey

Environmental sustainability is a pillar of Ecolibrium3’s work, and it is also important to the mission of AmeriCorps. A key Meet three VISTAs working in sustainable food access!

Josif works at Community Action Duluth, supporting food access through farmer's markets and mobile markets. He also promotes clean water and healthy communities through his collaborations with Stream Corps.

Josif

Kory is serving at the PRAIRIE Institute in Moorhead. His work furthers food accessibility through food distributions and youth stewardship. Kory is also involved with CASA, advancing community resources for the Latino population.

Kory

Isaac is placed with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He is building a deep winter greenhouse to improve food sovereignty and provide fresh greens in the coldest months of the year.

Isaac

Environmental sustainability includes many different areas of work. From energy efficiency to pollution reduction, sustainability VISTAs promote climate action and stability for future generations.

Claire serves at the Ecolibrium3 offices. Her work is centered on ensuring everyone can access energy efficiency upgrades by increasing equitable access to energy programs, especially for renters. She also helps with community resilience work.

Claire

Ella serves with the City of Duluth Sustainability Office, helping energy burdened residents. She also works on the Duluth Climate Action Plan and Imagine Duluth 2035 comprehensive plan, and organizes a monthly sustainability education series.

Ella

Building capacity is one of the main goals of the VISTA program. This can include administrative work, outreach campaigns, or securing funding.

Laec is building capacity in the Eco3 office while developing his computer programming skills. He is creating digital systems to improve efficiency in Eco3’s program areas, especially streamlining the processes for VISTA reporting.

Laec

Brandon is serving at Fond du Lac in technology systems. He recently presented solutions to improve division workflow and efficiency, boost engagement and communication, and track project progress in the IT Department.

Brandon

Sophie serves at Fond du Lac in an administrative role. She was the sole author of four grants bringing in $520,000 to the Band, including transportation solutions and creating a full-time grant writer position.

Sophie

Transportation is a key piece of sustainability, community vitality, and public health. We have two VISTAs working to make transit options in Duluth more sustainable and equitable.

Thomlin has been with Eco3 VISTA at Zeitgeist for a year and a half. He is currently working on a transportation equity film series and has expanded communications on transit equity and community development.

Thomlin

Miles is placed with the City of Duluth working on two major street design projects: 6th Avenue East and West Superior Street. Miles participates in design meetings and conducts traffic and yield studies.

Miles

Healthy Futures is an area of AmeriCorps work focused on healthcare access, aging in place, food security, and combating the opioid crisis. Three Eco3 VISTAs are currently serving this need.

Andrew connects with community members to share medical resources, including mental health resources. He has also been working on a project assessing what medical practitioners need to support their patients.

Andrew

Josh is serving as the University of Wisconsin-Superior Mental Health and Wellbeing VISTA. He analyzes survey data from psychology classes and activities, performs data analysis, and supports projects like the 2023 Live Well Incentive Program.

Josh

Jared is serving with Chum. He works to expand connections throughout the housing sector. He also supports operations at the emergency Warming Center and is involved with the development of a new supportive housing program.

Jared

As we advance sustainability and equity in our community, it is important to consider how we respond and recover from disasters. AmeriCorps VISTA members improve disaster resilience in a number of ways in our community.

Alejandro is serving at the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, working on the Ready North network for disaster resilience. He expands communications about disaster resilience and builds the capacity of the network.

Alejandro

In addition to supporting our 18 VISTAs as Eco3 VISTA Leader, Reese coordinates community resilience grant work. Reese supports the Ready North network and is researching the impacts of natural disasters and grid outages.

Reese

This AmeriCorps Week, join us in thanking our VISTAs for their service to our communities. Learn more about the VISTA program!