Our Goal:

 

The VAD is a tool that members should use to help gain an understanding of their project goal, as well as the objectives and steps required to achieve that goal. The VISTA Leader can continually utilize members’ VADs to help VISTAs better understand their project role and how they can achieve high performance and project success throughout the year.  



To determine if VISTA members are accomplishing their objectives throughout the year, two primary questions should be continuously considered:

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          1. What should the member be accomplishing according to his or her VAD?
          2. Are the needs of the project, organization, and member being met?



A Leader’s approach to helping VISTA members answer these questions will change throughout the VISTA term as the members’ work progresses.  Additionally, the needs of the VISTA project, sponsor organization, and members will often change during the year, and the VISTA Leader will need to support VISTAs as they adapt to new circumstances.

The Background:

Team Considerations:

While creating this guidebook of resources, our team kept two considerations in mind:

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1. The VISTA Leader’s role is distinct from the supervisor’s role.  It is important for the Leader and VISTAs to communicate with the VISTA supervisor as they work with these resources to ensure the VISTA is addressing the organization’s needs.
 

2. VISTAs will use this resource after an initial VAD analysis during PSO, so Leaders should factor in the work completed at PSO as VISTAs enter Phase 1.

Our Approach:

To help VISTA Leaders understand how to effectively use the VAD with VISTA members throughout their term and answer these primary questions, we have broken down the VISTA term into three phases: Getting Started (months 1-3), The Work Period (months 4-8), and Building Toward the Future (months 9-12). Each phase identifies the key VISTA Leader roles, common challenges VISTA members face, best practices for dealing with those challenges, and resources to use in conjunction with the VAD to help VISTA members achieve high performance during that specific phase.