NJ Commission on National and Community Service VISTA program

Our mission is to enhance volunteerism, youth service, corporate volunteerism, and service learning in the state of New Jersey. We need you to make this happen and I thank you for taking the time to review our initiatives.

The first initiative responds to the need of the Volunteer Centers over many years for human resources and capacity development to reflect the growth of volunteerism in our youth and corporate sectors. This includes partnerships with those entities; recruitment and retention of baby boomers in meaningful service and the development of volunteer databases in each county for volunteer recruitment. VISTAs opportunities exist in New Jersey volunteer centers located in seven counties, some near New York City.

Our second initiative will be meeting the needs of young people and helping them find their way in the world through service and service-learning. Service-learning combines community service with the school curriculum. This has been applied to many schools in New Jersey and has proven very successful and an effective as a teaching method. As a VISTA, you will help educate schools and colleges about the impact of service-learning; support the development of new service learning programs and help to develop the schools’ capacity to sustain this service based experiential learning. As a VISTA, you will reach out and support NJ schools and colleges in developing service based projects. Placement opportunities include the NJ Commission on Higher Education, Rutgers/NJ Center for Character Education, and the NJ Higher Education Service-Learning Consortium.

Supporting the state-wide efforts of volunteerism and service-learning across New Jersey, additional VISTA placements are also located at the NJ Commission on National and Community Service located in the New Jersey Secretary of State’s office.