Charleston Area Service Collaborative

The Charleston Area Service Collaborative is an AmeriCorps VISTA program sponsored by the City of Charleston Mayor’s Office for Children, Youth, and Families. CASC has two focus areas: education and veterans. CASC places VISTAs at sponsoring sites throughoutCharlestonCountythat develop projects within these two focus areas. Within education VISTAs could be working to support programs related to volunteer management, youth leadership, service learning, parent supports, literacy, academic achievement, health literacy, nutrition, extended day programs and partnership building. As aVISTAfocused on supporting Veterans, projects include engaging veterans as volunteers, building partnerships, coordinating services, creating continuums of care, and health.

CASC Goal

Our three year goal for the Charleston Area Service Collaborative is to put in place sustainable systems through which programs are offered to children, families, and veterans, so that they are seamless rather than fragmented, navigable rather than cumbersome, and effective rather than mediocre. We aim to accomplish this by:

• Increasing the literacy skills of children
• Increasing parent and family supports
• Implementing service-learning in the classroom
• Building the capacity of schools to recruit and manage volunteers effectively
• Developing a comprehensive health and wellness system that focuses on multi-disciplinary services and a medical home for each child.
• Providing support to veterans agencies and organizations to develop and sustain a system of coordinated services to better serve veterans
• Establishing innovative approaches to engaging veterans in service to the community