I am the new girl in town, and I have a story that is probably a little different from the usual about a person moving to the Santa Clarita Valley. I am here through AmeriCorps VISTA to work at the Volunteer Resource Center of SCV through a grant form California Volunteers, Office of the Governor.

Some of you might remember VISTA, Volunteer In Service To America, back from 1964 when it was started. It was domestic volunteer program modeled after the Peace Corps which came into existence when Lyndon B Johnson declared a "war on poverty." Today the VISTA program has the same mission it started out with: to fight poverty. It is different from other AmeriCorps programs because is focuses exclusively on capacity building of organizations and communities. This would include things like organizing new programs to address needs in a community, finding funding, and volunteer support. That is exactly why I will be serving here through the Volunteer Resource Center of SCV. The Volunteer Resource Center is a local non profit that supports the local non profits through volunteer matching through our online hub, and provides training and support to non profit leaders through workshops and networking. There are over a hundred non profits in the Santa Clarita Valley doing all kinds of amazing things, we are just here to help them do more of what they already are doing.

I started this blog to tell Santa Clarita about who I am and why I'm here and maybe in the process I can inspire some people to serve as well. I will be writing about my experiences meeting some of you out in the community. I'll tell you about some of the organizations I come across, their amazing missions, and just how things are going here at the Volunteer Resource Center.

By the way, be sure to check out our website www.VolunteerInSCV.org !

If you want more info about The Corporation for National and Community Service, or AmeriCorps and its other programs you should check out their website at www.americorps.gov .