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UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences CAES Signature Event D.W. Brooks Lecture and Awards
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Georgia 4-H VISTA Project

Date Honored: 10/02/2012
Portrait of Georgia 4-H VISTA Project

2012 D.W. Brooks Diversity Award - Unit/Group

The Volunteers In Service to America (VISTA) program, a grant-funded partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service, has been a part of Georgia 4-H since July 2010.

Through AmeriCorps' VISTA program, Georgia 4-H receives college-educated workers from a variety of backgrounds to serve a year in either the state office in Athens or one of six county offices in the UGA Cooperative Extension's Southwest District.

The VISTA members' goal is to help fight poverty by helping to address the needs of marginalized youth through increased 4-H marketing efforts, volunteer recruitment and grant development.

So far, 14 VISTA volunteers from different backgrounds and different parts of the country have worked with Georgia 4-H, and their impact has been tremendous. They have raised more than $200,000 to help support 4-H programming since 2010.

The five current Georgia 4-H VISTA members are: Capri Martinez and Dominique Butler in the state office; Cindy Edwards in Calhoun County; Janelle Jelks in Colquitt County; and Kassie Love in Houston County. Laura Perry Johnson, Southwest Extension District director, and Jeff Buckley, state Extension 4-H specialist, serve as the program's supervisors.

 

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