About Us
New York Campus Compact
NYCC is an association of college and university presidents and their campuses committed to promoting active citizenship as an aim of higher education. The New York Campus Compact provides statewide leadership in advocating for, supporting, and increasing student involvement in academic and co-curricular public service, in order to strengthen the capacity of member institutions to serve society; to enhance student learning; and to develop in individual students the knowledge, values, skills, and habits of civic responsibility and democratic participation.
Office Staff:
James M. Heffernan, Ph. D.
Executive Director
Angela Downing
Office Manager
Marianne Ridley
Administrative Assistant
Heather Savoy
VISTA Program Coordinator
New York Campus Compact & AmeriCorps VISTA
New York Campus Compact has been partnering with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) since 2003 in order to assist member campuses with volunteer service and service-learning. By providing these campuses with trained full-time volunteers to coordinate new and ongoing service programs, NYCC enables colleges and universities to better respond to issues facing low-income communities.
STATISTICS for 2006-2008:
Value of funding received from CNCS: $881,364.00
Value of program (volunteer hours and resources generated): $7,902,000.00
NYCC VISTA members (‘06-‘08):
- contributed 90,000 hours of service
- recruited 7,300 volunteers to work with low-income populations
- coordinated these volunteers in 190,000 hours of volunteer service
- raised $580,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to support programs
We have worked with sites and with CNCS to identify four common goals that unite all of our diverse VISTA sites. These goals will serve as a mechanism for assessing our program as a whole and will provide a foundation for further growth:
• NYCC VISTA members will develop/enhance programs that provide mentoring/tutoring support to low-income youth and individuals in order to promote academic achievement and access to higher education.
• NYCC VISTA members will establish and/or maintain sustainable community partnerships between host institutions and community organizations that address local poverty issues.
• NYCC VISTA members will document and create awareness of the service-learning and civic engagement efforts of their host institutions to ensure that the community-campus partnerships they have helped to initiate/maintain are beneficial to organizations serving low-income populations and are sustained beyond the AmeriCorps VISTA term of service.
• NYCC VISTA members will foster student volunteerism by improving, expanding, and supporting non-curricular service opportunities that work with low-income populations including Federal Work-Study, Bonner, alternative breaks, etc..
We are grateful that our strong relationship with CNCS, Cornell University, and all of our VISTA host sites has enabled us to reach this level as a program. Most of all, we are continuously in awe of the dedication and passion that our VISTA members demonstrate throughout their service. Each of them has left a lasting impression on the community where they chose to serve and we are proud to support and recognize their accomplishments.
"In just eight months my AmeriCorps VISTA project has taken on a life of its own. With each meeting we attend, I can hear a common voice emerging. With each challenge we face, I can feel a spirit of urgency towards finding a solution. With each milestone we achieve, I can see the signs of leadership taking root. When you work in organizing as I do, you have the pleasure of helping a community come together to make change happen." - Joel Thomas, VISTA member 2007-2008, City College of New York
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