The Center for Participatory Change is a regional sponsor organization for the Americorps VISTA program. VISTA stands for Volunteers in Service to America. VISTA volunteers commit to serve full-time for a year at a nonprofit organization or local government agency, working to fight illiteracy, improve health services, strengthen community groups, and much more. VISTA members do not perform direct service, but create or expand programs designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. They can also work on building the capacity of the organization—around fundraising, projects, planning, or other areas of work.

CPC, as a regional sponsor organization, coordinates the administration and training for the placement of VISTA members at grassroots social justice organizations across Western North Carolina. We have taken on this role as part of our mission to help people in Western North Carolina recognize their own power, work together, and transform their communities. We believe that VISTA volunteers can be a valuable resource for strengthening a grassroots organization. We also believe that the VISTA experience provides an important opportunity to support emerging nonprofit leaders and community organizers.

CPC’s VISTA program is called the Western North Carolina Grassroots Support Project. Grassroots Support Organizing is a model of community organizing that incorporates skills from popular education and participatory community development. Rather than focusing on a particular issue, our organizing model concentrates on building the strength and capacity of leaders, groups, and networks at the grassroots level—an approach that has benefited more than 150 grassroots organizations in Western North Carolina over the last ten years, and one that will greatly enhance the VISTA experience.