#happen in the midwest which is. i mean i literally don't have enough money to get there rn. but it's whatever

[vampyroteuthid]

my aunt died this morning and i was told about it on the same day directly and not by facebook or someone being like "oh didn't you hear aunt x died" several days later so you could say my communication with my family is improving

[nihilisticlinguistics]

I served as a VISTA for 2 years during COVID after graduating college. I lived in a medium cost of living city in the Midwest, and I was earning about $13,000/year. You serve at the same job site the entire year unless you request a transition and it is approved; this happened for at least one person in my VISTA cohort whose job site...basically lied about the work they'd be asked to do and was taking advantage of them. You don't have to move unless you apply for a VISTA role outside of your area, you get to choose your own housing, etc. unlike NCCC. My fiance and I lived with a friend for the first year of VISTA (we were both in VISTA for the first year, he got a regular job after one year while I stayed on), which helped with expenses.

Because of COVID, my service site was fully remote, which meant I didn't need to spend a lot on gas for driving. I believe most VISTA job sites are not allowed to be fully remote but depending on the work hybrid may be OK. You want to live near your job site if possible, though, since commutes can be expensive and exhausting especially on literal poverty wages. With pandemic lockdowns, I didn't have a lot of pressure to have a Social Life and go out and spend money, which also helped in the pocketbook -- and living with a friend and my partner meant all the built-in social time I needed (I am a homebody by nature).

Also because of COVID, the food stamps for my 2-person household were actually more than I budget for food now with the same household. I believe the food stamp increases are long expired at this point, but for a year we spent basically no money on food unless we wanted takeout. The neat thing about the food stamps, though, is that legally your AmeriCorps VISTA stipend doesn't count as income when they tally your income for food stamp eligibility. so if you don't have another source of income, you'll get the maximum allowable food stamps.

My fiance's VISTA site also offered a rent payment as a benefit of working at the site. It covered his share of our rent each month and then some, so I also got to save money that way; after I had served for a year, my job site offered a similar benefit (though it was for less money). Look into the possibility of rental assistance if you're considering VISTA service, whether it's through your job site or more traditional means.

Other things: I was lucky enough to have a very used car from my dad, so we didn't have to buy a car/pay car insurance on it right away, and the gas mileage was great because it was a hybrid. Similarly, we both had our phone bills and health insurance covered by our respective parents' phone plans.

AmeriCorps VISTA (not sure about the other AmeriCorps programs) also had a fund for each VISTA member to reimburse healthcare expenses. IIRC it was about $8000, but I can't remember if it was lifetime or per-year. Alternatively, you could sign up for their health insurance, but as I said, I was covered by my parents at that time, so it wasn't needed.

The Segal Education Award was a big part of why I stayed for two years; I went from $27,000 in federal student loans at the start of my term to $15,000 after those two years, and in the 20 months since then I was able to pay those loans down to $5500 using savings I accumulated during VISTA. The big thing here is that using the Segal Award...it's taxable, but you can't hold any of it back to pay the taxes on it. So your tax bill will be higher in the year(s) you use it. This is why I used mine right away, to pay on my student loans. Because my income was so low, the Segal award had a big impact on my overall tax burden, but it was basically the only thing I owed taxes on, so I still got a tax refund after using it.

Can't stress this enough: I got lucky in a lot of ways. I had family, friends, and a partner to work with, and to share resources. We had some good bonus benefits like the rent assistance, and the pandemic reduced some costs and increased our food stamp allotments.

If you're considering VISTA, you should know that you do not have to be independently wealthy to make it work. If you can live at home, or with a group of housemates, that's a big help. If you can use public transit or walk to a job site, that's a big help. If you can get financial assistance from any source, use it.

One of my biggest critiques of the VISTA system is that it wants to have its service members experience what it's like to live at the poverty line...which really dis-incentivizes applications from people who are already living at the poverty line in the affected communities they're working with. I had a fair number of privileges and resources going into this; even so, I had basically no savings and was trying to build an adult household for the first time. COVID was, like it was for many people already living in poverty, an unusual case of receiving a lot of aid and extra accommodations that made life easier; I finished my second VISTA term just as many of those extra resources were expiring.

In terms of the experience itself:

I honestly think I would have gotten more out of my service years if we had been able to work in-person safely; but I was also serving with a pilot program that didn't have any dedicated staff, so there was often just...not a lot for me to do.

VISTA generally has 'cohorts' of VISTA members who don't necessarily work at the same site, but do work in the same general area. VISTA focuses on anti-poverty work, but that's really broad as well: in my cohort, some people worked at food shelves, one person was at a bookmobile, another served at a community land trust. My fiance was in a different cohort from me, and he served at a foundation that ran free youth sports and mentorship programs. I think some other ones involved the parks and rec service, homeless shelters, etc. The cohort had regular meetings and check-ins so the supervisors could make sure our VISTA experience was going smoothly and we had all the workplace resources we needed.

(As an aside, my first VISTA supervisor was one of the coolest people I've ever met. She was an anarchist and socialist and she started us doing anti-poverty and anti-racism book clubs and used our VISTA funds to buy lunch for us at the meetings. happy for her that she went to get her Ph.D. but bummed that she left, her replacement was sadly nowhere near as cool.)

because the VISTA members are placed at wildly different job sites, the experience, workload, and the work itself can vary widely, but it also means you have more leeway to find a job site that fits your interests. it also means you're working at established organizations -- I was under the mayor's office, technically, but you might work under a different government branch, at a nonprofit, etc.

some job sites will really push the limits of what a VISTA is legally allowed to do. Legally, VISTAs cannot displace paid employees or do the work of a paid employee. VISTAs are usually extra resources to help get new programs off the ground and build the existing organization's capacity; ideally, your purpose is to work yourself out of a job; either the organization can hire someone once things are up and running, or the project runs its course and wraps up. but some job sites love to treat VISTAs as interns, or as administrative assistants, or ask you to do things that aren't legal. For example, VISTAs cannot, in their work capacity, staff a polling place for elections or try to increase election turnout -- but I know of at least one job site that asked its VISTAs to do just that on the job. (You can volunteer for those things on your own time, just not as a VISTA).

Hope this info helps!

Hello! I wanted to ask about Americorps. :) First off, are they always taking people? Given the difficulty of finding a job as of late, I was wondering if hiring/the acceptance of applications has slowed any. Second, what's the pay like? Is it just enough to live on, or enough that you could put some towards college debt or savings? Third, where could you apply; are there recruiting centers or is it all online? Fourth, what's life like in the corps, per your experience?

Here are the programs currently accepting applications (6/4/24). The applications are pretty much always open for at least one entry time (there are 3 entries per year- Fall, Winter, and Summer). I know that the acceptance rate changes with the number of applications, and some years they take everyone, while other years they take fewer applicants. The only way to know if you get in is to apply.

You can use the search feature below to see what programs are available. Make sure the "AmeriCorps NCCC" and "AmeriCorps NCCC Team Leaders" buttons are clicked, click nothing else, and hit "search".

Since it's service, the pay is a stipend. When I was in NCCC in 2018, the stipend for CMs was $300/month and the stipend for TLs was $800/month. I think it's more now so if anyone knows please let me know so I can give more updated info. Keep in mind that:

All your basics- food, transportation, lodging, etc... is covered in full

Any federally backed student loans you have go into forbearance and the interest is paid by AmeriCorps

You get an education award of about $7,000 per service term (up to 2) that can go toward future education, job training or to pay off existing student loans

Basically the only thing you pay for while in NCCC is your cell phone bill and any personal care items, personal clothing, etc...

I saved about half of my stipend while I was in NCCC

Other AmeriCorps programs, like VISTA, pay essentially the local poverty line, since part of the program is learning to live on very little.

You apply online. Call 1-800-942-2677 if you need any help with the application.

[the-firebird69]

We're working on suing Trump and Dan and it's going to come to fruition pretty soon meaning they're going to have to pay up and they're going to be forced to by Max and everybody else they're getting small real quick right tomorrow they'll probably be gone meeting their people so I'll going after ghwb because they're a huge assholes about it out of the 20 quadrillion they're about five and most from the Midwest no about one from the Midwest the rest are being called to go after George cuz they want the Intel and that's pretty much all of them for real that's a ton and it was way too many to go after like you were saying and they do it too trump kept mocking you and mocking you, so you said shut up you don't have any thorium you should have a pig and he won't he says I'll get it with that stuff I said okay you're getting it now you say you should have listened and that's good a few times and he's going to try and threaten so you have to kill him so tired of that piece of s*** right now they're calling more and more of them literally they have about five quadrillion globally and one is in the Midwest and they're going to be gone shortly so they're forced to call more the 10 quadrillion are mostly Max and it's a portion of his force a large portion about a quarter is a giant number and they're small numbers that you can now but pretty soon they're going to discover they should move Arnie out in Obama it's too many to have in one place but that's only until after they figure it out .

The last of the things I say and how I say it I think it's funny too oh that stuff and everyone's been talking about it just figured it out and we are suing them and there's coffee and say all this stuff cuz it's a huge assholes and tomorrow is going to be different and tomorrow night will be much different and the day after they're going to actually send money cuz they're getting the s*** kicked out of and soon enough the Utah triple materialize because we'll actually have cleared the Midwest which was happening constantly there's a ton of people there anytime both kinds though and so many people is gross they were living out there you know Jerry got built up real fast and drove through it and that was it people move there from all over so early and there are tons of us there too it was hell tons of people.

Most of the satanists there will be gone tonight and we're going to start marching up again and push him up this time taking City by city for real and we're going to need to we need what's under it desperately and it's because of our father and mother forcing us to all should know we were forced to. The Galactus are ready to come up too they need to get out desperately it's time.

We will get something out of him that's for sure as landrigan again and a couple other characters were suing. He's going to send it himself that is going to say in the song you didn't mean to send the letter cuz he sends a letter and he says some things that they means then it says I didn't mean it then he said sorry but it couldn't help it said well that's what Mac does change your mind he got really pissed since why are you people doing it cuz he's a madman he's trying to figure something out that's gross yeah thanks for just going to roll over somebody got really mad and he decided that Mac had to go enjoy the rebels one of those torso back the whole time figured out Max is holding it there moving his troops to go there I'm tons of people start laughing you figured it out again so I couldn't stand him and he sent money so people start beating on him. Send money is land again people beating on him and you end up going to Utah not too far from now it's actually a little too close to the Jesus day so people figure it out. Max laughing he gets the idea and he gets the downside of it we're getting ready for it and no matter where he is going to try it but this will make it a lot more visible to us and ours and he's saying screw you and things like that and the ghwb thing is turned into an experiment and we see why I'm moving out and we're doing it we're getting this thing going most people on board for Utah too so don't be surprised and you know about Ernie he is so you are owed money and he had that pension for like 10 years after 2013 it's only for two more years that's true and that's Max fault he wants to do it cuz it's his company and 2023 is one more year but really it's this year too it's kind of started but it's also all the back pain from when he passed away which was 2 years ago so only about $700 a month so much money so he's laughing it's terrible it's like 17,000 or whatever literally it'll pay for cable TV and some other stuff but that's what it is a lot of money coming to him and it's about $50,000 for rent he paid to a place that was taking him for a ride and people can figure it out that's right stel. The upper Midwest falls in the Midwest and stel has to pay up.

The several more losses are coming through it says I'll be able to buy you things so she's listening now and one is landrigan. Is the class action suit that will go through first and everybody will pile them from that including us then there's a person of lawsuit that go through second and there's a ton of money that he owes you huge money and you're still injured and we're going to sue the living s*** out of him because it's all three doctors no it was two of them figured it out luckily. Pursuing for about $10 million and we're going to super bowl and add on items and continuously sue him meaning if he gets the judge say no we'll sue him again constantly until we win, that is when we saw up there in Tallahassee his will keep coming in and we'll get beat up by Max I want to and once he's gone he's going to win money and DC doesn't want it and stuff but nobody cares anymore they don't want this crappy lifestyle here we want him to be comfortable and without ice and his nuts all day and night because of idiots and the Midwest is going to beat the s*** out of them they're going to be down too something too that's a big number it's real numbers now and it's taking all this time to get there that's some close calls and it was tough and you pushed through it got through it like a trooper it was a lot harder than you thought it's still not over it's going to be some hard times but not as hard as before

We're working on the Scythe, it'll be ready this week to remove and Gu Oya I working on theirs the same thing going to be ready this week

I'm probably the lawsuits and there are several others that are going to go real quick and that would be probably SEC and risperdal and that's an older person's suit and I sat down I got the lawyer to agree and that was Mac and he said I agree I said it could be someone that I agree that you can take it so you have an agreement so now it's going to work better so if it works like he's helping cuz he is and you tell go ahead cuz you said we talked about that a little and he goes I'm going to go out to Utah and then they're not and then he said they shouldn't be there but they're going to want to know what to do so it's going on Harley dealership can you saved everybody and you don't want me to have anything it's so frustrating I might have to beat you to death I say that stop talking that way maybe it'll work I say this stop talking that way maybe it'll work for you you might survive I suddenly see something it's absolutely true is that still Trump is getting everyone to let go of everything and he can't even get there with that clunker it's not scientifically possible I agree we should go out there and sit there and listen and do it $700 a month 20 grand and maybe 3 or 400,000 in savings or something it's probably less and I say it's less it's about 200 Grand and plus about 40 with that other stuff and maybe 30 in assets it's hardly any money but for him it's somebody and he's had that kind of money so it's nothing really but it'll start a whole process of him getting some things and we need them to cuz he has to move for some reason on occasion he'll be able to eat out and stuff a little and it'll probably just start saving money still trying to invest in something or have a side business it's kind of what he starts thinking of and trying to get Ken to do something repetitively you can't find the yells at him no we can't do that and says yeah you have to since I don't have to I said you don't really because what do you want to do instead I don't know what do they do around here for pickup work so he laughs it says almost anything so he's got a vehicle of some kind it's not picking up truck it's not a car that's right you might have some kind of scooter somehow he and Ken might get a pair of scooters not even motorcycles on the back roads and that's what they do you kind of go down the 41 it's not really that crowded sometimes you're going through with you oxygenate after it is coconut water before and he starts laughing this is terrible you know more about it so he says we have to do something and get real mean go to the beach down there they start drinking buds drinking some other stuff you start doing some work and leaves the place so it kind of works out a little money because there's no what to do with it if you buy us a place you have to pay taxes eventually be out of money this is the taxes enough money I figured social security might stop too just calling your life is a little better ignore places and do stuff it says I'm just spending my money down and sitting there spending his money down on purpose he decided to buy a property maybe rent it out to Ken. Ken wants to pay less than what the mortgages no it's a reasonable amount so Ken moves in and he says it's my condo and it says you're kidding I said no I bought a condo it's money that I got stuff like that I make it up but it's a lot of fun it's something he can do

Bitol and goddess wife