Employment Opportunities at KIDS

AmeriCorps*VISTA Position

Our VISTA project in 2008-09 will be specifically tied to new changes to Maine’s educational standards, the Learning Results. A new standard for social studies calls for all students, at all grade spans, to select, plan, and participate in a civic action or service-learning project. The VISTA will work closely with KIDS Consortium staff and the Maine Department of Education to help “roll out” the new standards and ensure that Maine educators, particularly those working with children and youth living in poverty, have the resources and professional development opportunities they need to support implementation of the standard for service-learning and civic action.

For example, the VISTA will help: create new resources for K-12 teachers that demonstrate how the revised Learning Results can be addressed through service-learning projects; collect and create descriptions of service-learning projects to be used on our Website and in teacher trainings (specifically to fill in some gaps in certain content areas and on certain issues, i.e. history and elections, and add new health and environmental projects to the “bank” of project descriptions); develop a new student showcase process and event for the high school version of Project Citizen (Project Citizen is a national program - coordinated by KIDS Consortium for Maine schools - that involves students in identifying and researching a public policy problem in their community, developing their own solution, and creating and implementing an action plan; and identify potential funders who might be interested in supporting the expansion of service-learning in Maine and prepare proposals.

This VISTA service opportunity is part of collaborative initiative between Maine's Children's Cabinet, Communities for Children and Youth, and the Muskie School of Public Service, USM. The collaborative seeks to improve the lives of Maine's kids and seniors by supporting high quality, local and regional anti-poverty initiatives. Each VISTA serves directly with community partners to address specific child, youth, and or senior needs identified by an organization within the community. Currently over 45 VISTA members serve with community partners across the state.

For more details and to apply, please visit: http://www.mainevista.net/ or contact us at the KIDS office.