New VISTA

This week, a new VISTA joined our team at United Way. We are excited to welcome Lisa, our new group volunteer VISTA. She will be working with large group volunteer projects as well as working as a 2-1-1 specialist in the Volunteer Center.

We are excited to have a new face in the office and look forward to working with her.

Here's a picture, so you can put a face with the name!

Americorps Week

Americorps Week is fast approaching! I just wanted to share some of the things that we are planning to do for this week of fun!

We are focusing on raising the community's awareness about the Americorps program. To do this we are focusing on educational events (but of course with a little fun thrown in there too) Some of the things we have planned are:
-Presentations in classes at local Universities (BYU and UVU) and presentations to the a more mature population. We plan on presenting information about Americorps at some assisted living facilities.
-Booths at grocery stores or other locations in Utah County. We hope to share some information with the community at places were they shop and visit.
-Attending city council meetings where the Mayors in Provo, Springville and Orem will sign a declaration, declaring May 10-14 Americorps Week.
-Hang up Americorps signs in stores
-A Thank You breakfast for those who support Americorps programs (United Way of Utah County)
- And finally, a fun bowling night for VISTAs and VISTA alumni

This should be a fun week! Make sure you are ready!

A little of this and that...

Mountainlands Association of Government is looking to hire an Americorps VISTA!

The position: Develop volunteer respite program for Utah County caregivers. Create tools to recruit, screen and train volunteers for respite breaks to primary caregivers. This is a great position for a recent college graduate or a person seeking re-entry employment. Full-time VISTA (1 year)- Health Care-Choice of $5,350 Segal lAmeriCorps Education award or a $1,500 end of service stipend. Contact glehnardt@mountainland.org by May 1, 2010 with a resume and cover letter.


Also, I want to remind everyone that it is National Volunteer Week. Today is reach out to someone. So I encourage everyone to participate. Visit our Facebook page for information on the daily challenges.

National Volunteer Week

This week is National Volunteer Week. To celebrate, United Way of Utah County is asking everyone to participate in a service challenge each day this week. The theme of this week is "Serving Close to Home" They are encouraging simple acts of service to make Utah County a better place.

Participate with us each day this week. Visit our website or Facebook to see our daily challenge!

Have a little fun by celebrating National Volunteer Week with us!

Looking for a Job this Summer?

We are currently looking for Summer Associate VISTAs. Positions are available from St. George to Provo.
Summer associates are "summer" VISTAs who dedicate themselves to service from June 7- August 13.

For more information about the position, visit the listing.

Goodbyes

We will be saying goodbye to another VISTA this week. Elizabeth, who's charge was the Volunteer Care Clinic, will finish up her year of service on Friday, April 16th. Everyone at United Way and the clinic will miss her. We will also now need to find someone new to water our plants.

If you see her before Friday, wish her good luck and a Happy Birthday (which is Friday too)


Thanks, Elizabeth!

VISTA of the Year and Conference on Service

This week I was able to attend the Conference on Service in Salt Lake. This was a great chance for me to be inspired by other VISTAs and by engaged citizens. I also learned a bunch to help improve my project and my experience here at United Way.

Tuesday was mostly for Americorps members. When we arrived at the conference we were overwhelmed by a sea of yellow polos. Later, we found out that all Americorps members had received these yellow polos and had decided to wear them to the conference. I felt quite left out, but I guess VISTAs don't get to have yellow polos. The day was filled with uplifting speeches and then informative breakouts. If you want to know more about what we actually learned. I'd be happy to share with you. (there are too many notes for me to share on a blog post)

Yesterday was also a informative day full of breakout sessions on a myriad of topics from how to engage baby boomers to stress relieving techniques.

The real highlight of the experience was the banquet on Tuesday night. Senator Orrin Hatch spoke to us and then awards were presented. We were so happy to have one of our own, Brian Wayment win VISTA of the year.

Brian with the Senator

No acceptance speech was given (though we would have liked it), but Brian was honored in front of a large crowd and some kind words were read about him as he accepted his award. He also got to pose for some photo ops with the Senator and the Lt. Governor.

We are proud of Brian and all of the VISTAs!

Census Day!

Have you filled out your census yet? Did you know that if you don't fill yours out and send it back, the government has to send someone to your house and count you in person. As you can imagine that would be super expensive. In fact, this could cost us (taxpayers) up to $1.5 billion! So it is worth it to take a second to fill it out and send it back and tell everyone you know!!

This fun site will tell you the participation rate of every area of the country!