Unveiling Green VISTA AmeriCorps: A Call to Environmental Action in St. Louis

– EPA Region 7 Feature –

By Olivia Bailey, Public Affairs

Do you want to be an environmental justice champion? EPA Region 7 and AmeriCorps have an exciting new opportunity in the works. Their VISTA partnership program aims to help historically underserved communities support environmental stewardship and anti-poverty efforts.

This first-of-its-kind effort for EPA is launching through the placement of two AmeriCorps VISTA (or Volunteers in Service to America) members with two “host” community organizations that have applied for and been selected by EPA to host VISTA members, based on their environmental justice focus and feedback from the communities they serve.

These two organizations are in the St. Louis metropolitan area: Lewis Place Historic Preservation (LPHP) and earthday365.

“The program is one of the ways EPA Region 7 is acting on our commitment to engage meaningfully with communities,” said Cassandra Krul, Green VISTA AmeriCorps pilot program coordinator for EPA Region 7. “By creating new partnerships with local organizations in the Region 7 geographic area, we can continue to support capacity-building projects that will support poverty alleviation and advance efforts to protect human health and the environment.”

Protecting human health and the environment is not only the mission of EPA, but it’s the aim of many organizations and programs at the federal, state, tribal, and local level.

“When it comes to overlapping efforts to tackle big issues, like promoting environmental justice or the health of a community, the question becomes: How do we combine these efforts to really start focusing on solutions? How do we help connect those dots?” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister. “By forming the sort of partnerships that we are building through this Green VISTA AmeriCorps pilot program, we will be able to leverage engagements into creating tangible, locally designed outcomes.”

A New Horizon for Environmental Advocacy

AmeriCorps works to achieve its mission “to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering” by focusing on six key areas to make an impact: disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families. The VISTA program specifically was founded in 1965 as an anti-poverty program, designed to provide needed resources to nonprofit organizations and public agencies to increase their capacity to lift communities out of poverty.

“It’s a natural fit for EPA to partner with AmeriCorps VISTA,” McCollister said. “What VISTA works to achieve in communities really complements the goals of our Agency, particularly with respect to our shared commitment to universal environmental protection and inclusive decision-making for healthier communities.”

Cassandra Krul, a former AmeriCorps member, developed the program for Region 7.

“VISTA brings talented, passionate people from all walks of life to engage in a year of full-time service with a host organization,” Krul said. “VISTA members serve 40 hours per week for one year, supporting host site projects that provide capacity-building services for anti-poverty efforts and environmental stewardship, which is a real boost to these organizations and the communities they serve.”

“The Green VISTA Corps program we are developing in the Midwest is more than a pilot. It's a call to action and a promise of a brighter, more equitable, and sustainable future for all,” said AmeriCorps Portfolio Manager Melissa Mohler.

AmeriCorps Regional Administrator Michael Laverty added: “The important outcomes from this partnership will be long-lasting and build pathways for further action in the environmental justice efforts.”

Strengthening Community Resiliency with Lewis Place Historical Preservation

For Pamela Talley, executive director of Lewis Place Historical Preservation Inc. (LPHP) in St. Louis, gaining a VISTA member would mean extra help with their education program on alternative energy and energy reduction, their disaster relief efforts through a Community Emergency Response Team, and their “Green Team” youth-focused, community-wide cleanup efforts.

“What I am most excited about is to have a full-time worker who can help us do the outreach, the organizing, and the education we need to help our community build capacity," Talley said.

LPHP serves a neighborhood north of the Central West End in St. Louis, just 1 mile away from Forest Park. The neighborhood includes a historic, brick-and-iron Lewis Place neighborhood gate; a community garden; and a park that features a playground, a fountain, and a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that the community worked to secure in 1978.

“Lewis Place Historic Preservation was formed in 2000 in response to the disinvestment of our community,” Talley explained. “For the last 50 years, we have been redlined and so we have – as residents – issued a call, and we formed a 501(c)(3) [organization] to see what were the things that we could do to help save our historic community, save our homes, and save ourselves.”

Talley shared that LPHP is excited to host a VISTA member who loves a challenge and loves to be engaged.

Collaborating with Community Organizations at earthday365

Just 5 miles away in Tower Grove South, based in a former church with preserved stained glass and a renovated office interior, earthday365 seeks a similarly passionate candidate to join their team as a VISTA member in St. Louis.

“Somebody who would be a really great fit in our [Green VISTA AmeriCorps] position would be somebody who brings really good energy, who cares a lot about sustainability and also working with underserved communities,” said earthday365 Executive Director Jess Watson.

earthday365 is an independent, nonprofit organization that seeks “to inspire and mobilize a collaborative movement towards an equitable and environmentally sustainable St. Louis region – every day.”

They are looking for someone to help support the organization’s Green Dining Alliance, a sustainability certification program that currently includes about 90 restaurants in the region. The VISTA member would also be working with earthday365 to support a program known as “Environmental Justice Days of Action,” which is a collaborative program that works with organizations in communities that are affected by environmental justice issues, specifically illegal dumping and food insecurity or food apartheid.

“The position would really be helping to create new partnerships and organize new ‘Days of Action’ and support our existing partnerships, while working with our outreach manager,” Watson added.

Answering the Call for Environmental Stewards

Being on the forefront of empowering individuals and communities to achieve environmental and health goals across Missouri through this Green VISTA AmeriCorps pilot program is sure to be personally rewarding, but VISTA members can expect additional benefits to their service as well.

Both of the pilot Region 7 Green VISTA positions offer training, health coverage, relocation and living allowances, child care assistance (for those eligible), an education award upon successful completion of service, and a choice of an education award or an “End of Service” stipend after the year of service.

In addition, VISTA members who serve for at least one year gain non-competitive eligibility when applying for federal jobs, which gives federal agencies the ability to hire a VISTA alum who meets the minimum job qualifications without undergoing all the formalities of the competitive process.

Lewis Place Historical Preservation accepted applications for their pilot Community Resilience Project position through July 11, 2024. Applications for earthday365’s first Green VISTA position, as an EJ outreach coordinator, were accepted through July 31, 2024.

“The time is now for advocates of environmental justice and sustainability to seize these unique opportunities,” Mohler said.