Portland Housing Authority Youth Services VISTA

The Study Centers need your help to provide positive 3rd spaces for youths of low-income families where they can explore, learn, grow, and develop their social/emotional, life, and leadership skills!

Portland Housing Authority (PHA) provides and expands affordable housing and services that improve quality of life, build community, enhance safety, and promote personal success for the people served and the neighborhoods in which they reside.  

 The Study Centers are community-based learning spaces that engage students of all ages and levels. The Study Centers try to lessen the barriers students face through meeting basic physical needs, providing homework assistance, mentoring youth, and approaching learning through artistic and engaging activities. As accessible third spaces for youth with no attendance requirement or standardized testing, the Centers focus on student needs and interests to ensure that they feel safe, heard, and valued while also pushed to grow, learn, and explore. Drop-in programming in the centers follows the public school calendar. During school vacations and summer, the centers focus on fun learning activities, providing lunches for children, and teen programming for skills development through project-based learning internships.  

To learn more, visit: http://www.phastudycenters.org/about.html.

The VISTA will serve to rebuild our volunteer systems, increase our program visibility, and build partnerships to meet the needs of our at-risk youth. The VISTA will support staff to increase educational outcomes, social-emotional wellbeing, job readiness, and protective factors for underserved youth in subsidized housing. Program capacity will be built through accessible curricula, establishing new volunteer sources, strengthening volunteer management practices, and increasing program partnerships. The VISTA will seek grants and funding to increase program resources. Additionally, the VISTA will support the city-wide collaborative of youth serving organizations to reduce duplicative efforts, build consistent standards for program efficacy and data collection, share resources for cross organization training, integrate with the public school 5-year plan, and reduce barriers to out-of-school-time program participation.

Benefits

• Bi-Weekly Living Allowance of $957.46/Biweekly
• Relocation Allowance of $750 plus $.40 per mile (for those moving more than 50 miles)
• Health Benefits
• Childcare Reimbursement if Eligible
• Student Loan Forbearance for eligible federal loans (interest paid by AmeriCorps)
• SNAP Eligibility (depending on financial situation)
• Training and Professional Development
• Life Navigator (on-staff licensed counselor for members)
• Choice of Segal AmeriCorps Education Award ($7,395) or an end-of-term bonus ($1,800) upon term completion
• Non-Competitive Eligibility for federal employment for one-year post-term
• Transportation assistance such as gas cards and parking and bus passes
• Client Support Services
• Extensive Training

*Individuals are limited to two full Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards in their lifetime

Already have a MyAmeriCorps account and want to apply for this specific role? You can find that listing on MyAmeriCorps here.

The positive impact VISTA members offer their local communities is remarkable and continues to build year after year. Descriptions of all Goodwill AmeriCorps Positions can be found at: goodwillnne.org/jobs/americorps/positions/.