VISTA Training: Day 3

Training is exhausting, but we persevered and learned a lot more on Day 3. Once again starting bright and early at 7am we kicked off the day discussing our VISTA Assignment Descriptions, or VADs. Each position has a different VAD tailored to fit the VISTAs individual talents in relation to the project goals. Some people had their work cut out for them to navigate 4 or 5 page VADs, but thankfully I only had 2 pages. The VADs are organized by the assignment objectives and the specific member activities that contribute to each objective. Many of our VADs had at least one component of capacity building to increase the efficiency of our organizations, and other goals revolving around your specific position.

This activity was one of the more challenging things we did, but was definitely a crucial part of training. I came away from this session with a clearer idea of what I needed to do and some creative methods of going about it.

This day of training also incorporated some very important exercises on communication styles and problem solving, but I won’t go into detail too much about that- it’s a training essential!

One of the most fun activities was about volunteer mobilization, and how to tailor your approach to different groups of people. We mainly focused on the generational differences of volunteers and what their values are and how to appeal to and work with/manage different groups. Analyzing different groups was fun and a lot of my peers were surprised to find them in the millennial group rather than generation X, however I wasn’t surprised due to a former advisor who wouldn’t let me forget it! This session ended in a discussion of the different resources provided by the Corporation of National Service, or as it is commonly referred to as “the corporation” (which kind of creeps me out...but ok). 

All in all it was an informative, but mentally exhausting, day. As I mentioned before, training was made much easier and more fun by all of the amazing people I got to meet and work with!