Vermont Youth AmeriCorps: VYT & VYDC

The Vermont Youth Tomorrow AmeriCorps VISTA Program's (VYT) supports initiatives across VT helping low-income youth and families develop job skills and academic proficiency, gain access to affordable housing and healthy food, and cultivate the social assets that they need to transcend poverty, avoid unhealthy behaviors such as opioid use, and ultimately thrive.

The AmeriCorps VISTA mission is to engage members in a year of full-time service to strengthen organizations that eliminate or alleviate poverty through the mobilization of community volunteers and resources. VISTA members establish systems, institutionalize knowledge, and develop community relationships to better generate resources, encourage volunteer service at the local level, and empower individuals and communities to lift themselves out of poverty.  

The Vermont Youth Development Corps AmeriCorps State Program (VYDC) is a state-wide AmeriCorps program that works through a network of community-based youth service agencies to increase positive, skill-building activities for young people and decrease factors that place youths at risk for violence and delinquency. Members provide positive out-of-school time activities that are designed to help youths develop the skills, attitudes, and knowledge they need to choose healthy behaviors. Host sites are currently located in Brattleboro, Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, and Waterbury.

VYDC members, usually serving in teams of two, help teen centers and after-school programs build capacity and realize their full potential as community prevention resources. Members build strong, broad-based service efforts that can make lasting impacts upon the communities they serve. The VYDC collaborates closely with the Vermont Out-of-School Time (VOOST) Network AmeriCorps*VISTA program.

The VYDC provides comprehensive, substantive, high-quality professional development training in topics relevant to youth work, including the following: youth development, diversity, violence prevention, community development, conflict mediation, program development, and more.