Digital Arts Service Corps - news

November Newsletter

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:10:22 +0000

November has brought with it a chill to the air, and considering we have 48 VISTAs currently serving in 15 different states, someone has got to have warmer weather than HQ here in Boston. Here's some info about what's new or useful from the CTC VISTA Project:

+++ Quick News & Announcements +++

READ a little about the CTC VISTA Project in an article on TechSoup

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/volunteers/page7636.cfm

SHARE all the great work you're doing by posting a Field Report:

http://ctcvista.org/vista-workspace

CONTACT Ben or your VISTA Leader (http://ctcvista.org/contact_us ) if with any issues or conerns about VISTA service.

THANK YOU all for your hard work and service! (not news but you deserve it)

+++ VISTA Spotlight +++

Anita Lie at the Little Tokyo Service Center in Los Angeles has been doing some great work around accessibility and training. She's currently finishing up a manual for all of the assistive technology her center offers, and which Anita has been involved in identifying needs and purchasing. Anita has just started working on a curriculum for teaching computer and internet skills to people with developmental disabilities. I've been really impressed by the progress Anita has made through her service as a CTC VISTA.

You can read more about what Anita is working on in her field reports at http://ctcvista.org/reports/user/1020 or what everyone is up to at http://ctcvista.org/vista-workspace

+++ Great Resources +++

"Writing A Federal Grant: What to Expect" from CTC VISTA Meegan Kelly

http://ctcvista.org/node/1085

YouthVision: Youth & Community Training Curriculum (contact me for a discount available to CTC VISTA host organizations)

http://www.ctcnet.org/youthvisions/

A Common Framework for Evaluating Nonprofit Performace

http://www.urban.org/publications/411404.html

+++ Other News +++

I thought we'd try putting out a short monthly newsletter to highlight some of the accomplishments of our VISTAs, spread around some useful information and just remind you that we're here if you need any help. I think the work we all do is amazing and it would be great to see that everyone who really makes this Project run--VISTAs and their Supervisors--can see a bit more of the birds-eye-view those of us at HQ get on a day to day basis.

And just to see if anyone is reading this, here's my new favorite, bad joke:

Q: Did you hear about the circus fire?
A: It was In-tents.
(You kind've gotta vocalize it to get it)

Email me your favorite joke and have a great November!

New June CTC VISTAs

Ben Sheldon — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:51:56 +0000

Last Thursday the CTC VISTA Project swore in 25 new CTC VISTA members to begin a year of service to their community. These new VISTAs are a diverse and energized group hailing from across the country and serving in a wide array of capacities: community wireless, accessibility and inclusion, fundraising and outreach, youth storytelling and many more exciting capacity-building technology and media projects.

These 25 new VISTAs brings our current size of the CTC VISTA Project to an astonishing corps of 90 VISTA members.

June 2007 CTC VISTA Members: (Right to Left) First Row: Danielle Martin (VISTA Leader), Marylin Taylor, Cecille Isidro, Victoria Edwards, Julie Adler, Anita Lie; Second Row: Morgan Sully (VISTA Leader), Angela Saylor, Rian Graves, Tony Brown, Karl Otto, Ashley Mathews, Kelli Williams, Dianne Boro; Third Row: Ross Musselman (VISTA Leader), Rob Heck, Rayna Ramirez, Sarah Pierantoni, Charles Farmer, Jack Doherty, Dianne Curtain, Jim Mora, Kevin Palmer (VISTA Leader); Fourth Row: Meegan Kelly, Alexis Walker, Josh King, John Van Houdt, Sil Green, Jack Waugh, Ben Sheldon (Assistant Director); Not Shown: Donna Licata

Free NYTimes Select this week!

Jessica McCoy — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:59:16 +0000

Exciting news! From Nov. 6-12 on the New York Times website the Times Select content which normally you have to pay for will be free. Yay! This includes some of the more popular Op/Ed columns and also some video clips. I think it also includes some access to the archive but I haven't checked that out yet.

Anyway, yay for free information! (sponsored by Philips, so I suppose it's just an adverstising ploy)

The Digest Fall '06 : the CTC VISTA Project Newsletter

danielle martin — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:06:33 +0000

As the air gets colder in Boston, it's that time once again...the Digest is coming, the Digest is coming. Here's some details:

History:

The Digest, as the newsletter is known, is a Project specific publication based on the content we used to produce in the professional journal, the Community Technology Review (which is now on hiatus indefinitely). CTR was filled with contributions from all volunteer authors as well but had much longer pieces and was printed. There also used to be a tiny newsletter produced by VISTA leaders.

The Digest is the next generation of news about the Project. It has the goal of highlighting the work of the VISTAs and accomplishments of our participating organizations. As Peter stated in the intro to the first issue of the Digest in May of 2006 :

"Developed using Drupal content management system tools, the Digest allows us to present the kind of substantial content the Project has provided in the past via the Community Technology Review—organized from a limitless number of perspectives, and we have chosen here themes of news, trends and reports in our focus area work, and blogs—with special takes on those focus areas: community networking, TA to NPOs , community organizing, and digital media for youth (for more categories, check out the tag cloud)."

The last issue of the Digest is at < http://www. cpcs . umb . edu /vista/digest/ >.

Articles:

All the content of the Digest is original to the Project, whether it is new articles or excerpts from VISTA blogs. In the past we've aimed for articles of 600-800 words (but sometime longer) on topics specific to the work the VISTAs are doing in their organizations. Articles fall into sections such as:

News - Articles written by VISTAs, Project HQ staff, and supervisors about news about the Project itself and events at our participating organizations (especially highlighting the work of VISTAs)
Trends & Reports - articles by outside experts, friends of the Project about trends/topics related to work of the VISTAs, primarily in the four priority areas. also includes updates based on mid-year and end of year reports.
From the blogs - excerpts of entries by VISTAs in their CTC VISTA blogs, including photos
Wall of Video - links to videos made by, related to, or were a result of VISTA's programs

Deadlines for Fall 2006:

Rough Draft deadline: 10/13
Final Draft deadline: 10/20
Production week: 10/23-27
Full issue out online - out around 10/30

Call for authors:

ANYONE can be a writer for the Digest - new & current VISTAs, supervisors, alumni VISTAs, and even friends of the Project. Please contact Danielle or Erin at Project HQ if you're interested. It's a great chance to get published and get the word out about your organizations.