Recruitment & Admissions VISTA

Application Deadline: January 8, 2024

About The Collective Blueprint

The Greater Memphis area has more than 45,000 young adults, aged 16-24, who are out of school and out of work. Nearly half of these young adults are in poverty, and only 1% will be on the path to a living wage by the time they are 28.

The young adult population represents the next generation of community, business, and political leaders. It is imperative that they are equipped with the skills and supports they need today in order to guide Memphis forward tomorrow. The Collective Blueprint advances a community framework that reflects the personal and economic aspirations of the city’s young populace.

The Collective Blueprint was started in 2016 and is the only local organization specifically tailored to the needs of young adults. We provide relationships, resources, and a network of support to help young adults discover and develop their unique talents in order to advance their personal and professional objectives. Our Vision is that all young adults have the power to live their best lives and the tools to make that a reality. 

The Collective Blueprint Model 

The Collective Blueprint is building the framework to reach economic equity for all young adults in the following ways: 

1) Initiatives: Build coalitions that create systemic solutions to ensure more young adults complete education and continue on to careers 

2) Programs: Be the go-to organization for how to support and partner with opportunity youth as they begin their careers 

3) Advocacy: Build a movement toward a more economically just Memphis by positioning young adults as leaders and advocates

About The Americorps VISTA Program

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that helps millions of Americans improve the lives of their fellow citizens through service. The CNCS AmeriCorps VISTA Members will serve for a year at The Collective Blueprint, building capacity in ways that align with their roles. The role of VISTAs on our team is unique in that they are not employees of The Collective Blueprint. VISTA members are paid and receive benefits through CNCS. Visit www.nationalservice.gov for more information about CNCS and AmeriCorps VISTA. 

Please see the VISTA position descriptions below for more detailed information. To apply for these positions, you will need to create a MyAmeriCorps account at my.americorps.gov. Once you create an account and an application, search for this position within the My AmeriCorps system. In addition to the living allowance from CNCS, The Collective Blueprint offers VISTA members a competitive incentives package including generous rent, grocery, wellness, and gas assistance.

This position begins on February 12, 2024 and ends on February 10, 2025. Dependent on VISTA performance and organizational needs, VISTAs are sometimes hired as full-time employees at the end of their service term.

Position Responsibilities 

The Collective Blueprint makes first contact with young adults through our recruitment efforts, and we begin to build our relationship during our admissions process. The Recruitment and Admissions VISTA will be responsible for building TCB’s capacity for programming by improving (and designing new) recruitment and admissions processes and tools. Recruitment at TCB is about establishing the beginning of a trusting relationship with young adults and those who are in their social network. We strive to represent our program opportunities in clear, accurate, and compelling ways so that young adults can make an informed choice. At TCB “Admissions” is about a lot more than just answering the question, “Who will we admit?” Instead, our admissions processes are about answering, “How can we establish a healthy relationship with young adults from the outset in order to set them up for success in school and in careers?” This VISTA will have two major areas of focus: 

1. Recruitment 

Project Goal: Evaluate and codify what works best about our older youth (18-30) recruitment process. Refine processes and tools to make this process reliably efficient and effective. 

Activities

• Evaluate the current processes and tools associated with each step
• Recommend improvements to the process and tool set 
• Collaborate with the team implement improvements 
• Lead the ongoing testing and refinement of processes and tools through recruitment cycles

2. Older Youth Admissions 

Project Goal: Evaluate and codify what works best about our older youth (18-30) admissions process. Refine processes and tools to make this process reliably efficient and effective. 

Activities

• Evaluate the current processes and tools associated with each step
• Recommend improvements to the process and tool set 
• Collaborate with the team implement improvements 
• Lead the ongoing testing and refinement of processes and tools through admissions cycles 

3. High School Admissions 

Project Goal: Identify admissions-related needs for our emergent High School programming, and begin to build a process and toolkit to reliably meet these needs. 

Activities

• Partner in the design and delivery of our first contact events and communications with high school students 
• Help build strong initial relationships with high school students considering participating in our program
• Identify the needs of high school students, high school staff, the families of students, and the TCB team during this initial phase of our relationship 
• Recommend a process that will reliably meet the needs of all stakeholders
• Build tools to help the TCB team execute this process in high schools