VISTA volunteer assigned to Ames
by
Laura Millsaps
April 18, 2009
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Ames, IA
The city has been working on ways to address issues of race relations and poverty in Ames, since December 2007, when Mayor Ann Campbell formed the Inclusive Community Task Force.
Now Ames has a little extra help in Adam Cotton.
Cotton is a VISTA volunteer from the federal AmeriCorps program who works for the city two days a week on community programs designed to promote neighborhood relations and inclusiveness. He’s part of a group of VISTA volunteers working throughout the state with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission
A graduate in sociology from the University of North Carolina Asheville, Cotton has been involved in AmeriCorps’ service projects in the Twin Cities and spent his first months in Iowa helping with disaster relief in Postville.
Cotton spends his time assisting action groups that resulted from Iowa State University Extension’s Community Conversations in Diversity held last fall.
“My role is nudging them toward action,” he said. “I go to meetings, help them build their Web site, do what I can to help these groups create community.”
New to Ames, Cotton has spent a lot of time listening to residents about community issues unfolding in the past few years.
“I’m coming from the South, but also from the Twin Cities, where diversity is just understood,” he said.
“You have to get along to have prosperity. I can see Ames trying to get to that point.”
Cotton is most proud of the newly created neighborhood block party program. The city will now provide, free of charge, a block party trailer equipped with folding tables and chairs, a stereo system and traffic barriers for groups interested in hosting neighborhood events.
“That’s part of the city’s goal to strengthen neighborhoods,” he said. “It’s a grassroots way to foster that inclusiveness and diversity we talk about. Many neighborhoods in Ames are not that way. We want to go into parks and streets and offer it to them.”
For Campbell, having a VISTA volunteer has been part of an ongoing process in the community’s growth.
“I am pleased to see how it has evolved,” she said. “Our concern at the end of the task force was: Where do we go from here?
“It’s worked because Adam is very much a self-starter. He’s the person who’s keeping tabs on all these community groups who are working on various projects.”
Ames will see more VISTA volunteers before the end of the year, the result of federal stimulus funding of AmeriCorps. One person has been hired to fill a summer position with the city, and another year-long position is slated to begin in July or August.
Campbell welcomes the opportunity to continue support of community programs.
“Adam has proven to us that AmeriCorps workers will come with a passion and are highly motivated,” she said.
On the Web:
• Iowa Civil Rights Commission, see
www.state.ia.us/government/crc.
• AmeriCorps and the VISTA volunteer program, see
www.americorps.gov.
http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2009/04/18/ames_tribune/news/doc49ea82e3a0732526652929.txt
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