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II Volunteers in Service to America Since 1965 more than 170,000 Americans have served in the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), working to combat poverty in the United States. VISTA is the nation’s longest-running domestic civilian national service program; it continues today as part of AmeriCorps. As a result, understanding VISTA’s history (in this part, its pre-AmeriCorps history) and its lessons as public policy for democracy is the next step in assessing the possibilities and limits of national service. Like the CCC, VISTA influenced how its participants and the public—particularly members of VISTA’s communities—understood their relationship to government and the meaning of citizenship. However, VISTA’s approach emphasized the principle of sacrifice as opposed to reciprocity, and the idea of government as catalyst as opposed to partner. Sacrifice meant that volunteers were to give more than they gained; government as catalyst, that they were to accomplish more with less, addressing the plight of millions by engaging only several thousand volunteers. Citizenship was implicit in VISTA’s approach; but the program mainly emphasized service and advocacy, along with certain constitutional and work perspectives. Most notable, however, is that VISTA intended to recruit people who already had a strong sense of citizenship; political theorist Eric Gorham is correct when he writes that VISTA did not “make pretensions to training [volunteers] for citizenship.”1 However, it is wrong to conclude that as a result VISTA did “not promote citizenship or educate [volunteers ] politically.”2 VISTA did not make nurturing citizenship an explicit goal, but VISTA service influenced its participants’ civic inclinations, often in politically controversial ways. Part 79 06-2380-6 ch6.indd 79 12/24/12 11:45 AM 80 volunteers in service to america Politically, VISTA was never ended, but like the CCC, it was never deeply institutionalized or used as a model for subsequent policymaking. VISTA was not publicly or politically well recognized, accepted, or strongly supported as a feasible policy option for addressing the nation’s needs or considered a practical life-option for large numbers of young adults. VISTA reached its peak pre-AmeriCorps enrollment of 5,000 in 1968 and spent much of the next twenty years fighting for its life. That VISTA survived is a testament to its ideological and programmatic flexibility and to defenses afforded by the post–New Deal political system, which allowed it to overcome more resistance than the CCC ever faced. Still, surviving is not thriving: VISTA remained small and beleaguered. As a result, policy entrepreneurs interested in creating an American national service institution quickly looked elsewhere for ideas and inspiration. 06-2380-6 ch6.indd 80 12/24/12 11:45 AM ...

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