Digital Arts Service Corps - free

Foodstamps and Social Services

Jack Waugh — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:17:30 +0000

As a VISTA, you should be eligible for food stamps. ''Food stamps and many other social services (especially child care) cannot be taken away from you if you obtain them before becoming a VISTA.'' All prior federal assistance is unaffected upon becoming an AmeriCorps*VISTA.

This is what the AmeriCorps*VISTA handbook says regarding foodstamps:

The Department of Agriculture administers the Food Stamp Program. Department of Agriculture regulations state that AmeriCorps VISTA members who were receiving foods stamps before joining AmeriCorps VISTA will not have their food stamp allotment reduced or eliminated as a result of their allowances. Members not receiving food stamps before joining AmeriCorps VISTA will have their allowances counted as income for purposes of determining their level of food stamp eligibility. Members may be held responsible for food stamp overpayments. Carefully check your allotments to ensure that you are not given food stamps for which you are not eligible. If you apply for food stamps after you become an AmeriCorps VISTA member, you will have a decreased food stamp allotment. Department of Agriculture Food Stamp Regulations pertaining to AmeriCorps VISTA income exclusion are contained in the 7 CFR § 273.9.

==== DASCorps Assistance ====

The DASCorps can provide certification that you are serving as an AmeriCorps*VISTA, your living allowance payments and supporting material as to your eligibility for food stamps or other social services. Contact your Vista Leader!

==== Common Issues and Solutions====

There is an enormous amount of discretion given to each individual caseworker, and it seems that each interprets the guidelines very differently. In most cases, ''VISTAs are eligible'' and you should contact the Transmission Project should you run into difficulties.

Should your AmeriCorps living allowance be counted as income?
AmeriCorps member's Living Allowance is exempt, VISTA member's aren't (unless they had Food Stamps prior to service). This seems rather confusing since VISTA is (now) a subset of AmeriCorps. For those of you who are treated as exempt, it seems like they are recognizing you as AmeriCorps members, while for those of you who non-exempt, they are recognizing you as VISTA members. More info here.
My case worker told me, "I should have fought my own poverty rather that quitting my job to fight other's"
In extreme cases the locality may view your signing the AmeriCorps VISTA as voluntary poverty, which could be a hindrance in furthering your case. (Not really a solution...) (see VISTA Testimonials)
What if I have savings, investments, or mutual funds?
Food Stamp programs, along with many other social assistance programs, have an asset limit. This usually is savings, but may also include retirement plans and investments as well. The average amount is $2,000 but check your local requirements.

==== Links, Tips, & Tricks ====

While made specifically for those in Massachusetts, http://gettingfoodstamps.org has valuable, general information for anyone looking to receive food assistance.
Look to see if there are any community food centers/food banks/etc. that will help you apply for food stamps. I made a free appointment at this place called Food for People—they basically walked me through the whole food stamps application process so I didn't actually have to
deal with the Social Services people until I had already applied and they were evaluating my application.
If you can, try to apply for and receive food stamps prior to your service with AmeriCorps*VISTA. You are more likely to receive a larger amount in food stamps if you are already signed up for the program, then signing up during your year of service.

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)

Free Food Alert!!!

Corey Funderburk — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:45:22 +0000

Hey Everybody!

I just wanted to tell you all about this fun/free Halloween opportunity. I did it last year and it was a total blast. Basically, at Chipotle (really good burritos - is it only a West Coast chain?) if you dress like any of their menu items (using tinfoil) on Halloween, they'll give you a free burrito!!! My friends and I misunderstood and just dressed in tinfoil - Chip n' Dale dancer, Jailbird, Angel, Baby, etc. It was way fun and funny. Plus, what cheaper costume can you get than a roll of tinfoil? Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Happy Halloween!

http://www.chipotle.com/email/06-html-198.htm

Americorey

CTC VISTAs Can Share! - Digital Media Toolkit

danielle martin — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 16:02:32 +0000

As a little plug that collaborations and resources sharing is acutally possible among CTC VISTAs, I thought I'd post up something cool that happened last year.

Morgan Sully, developed an open DIY Digital Media Toolkit/CD-ROM, with a simple HTML start page and links to resources and free software (usually distributed on CD) to bring to sessions he did in his work with The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Community Center.

He put it up on his blog and posted it to the Digital Media discussion list (and Nettrice posted it to the old portal), and opened it up for folks to take and customize for their own work.

In response, Roxanne Johnson, built upon it and compiled her own toolkit to train her AmeriCorps volunteers and youth at the Twin Cities C-CAN/CTEP Project in MN.

Cool, huh?

Do-It-Yourself Digital Media Toolkit

Morgan Sully — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 18:13:49 +0000

Inspired by the cool Dynebolic.org CD, CTC VISTA Morgan Sully (SDTC / Digital Media Project) created a DIY Digital Media Toolkit/CD-ROM. This cross-platform CD includes a small collection of free creative tools/software for users to manipulate images, record sound and upload/share their media. Morgan notes the tools can be used on their own or with the tutorial and resource links, including iMovie and Windows Movie Maker (for assembling projects). In this web-based version of Morgan's toolkit you cannot install the software but he provided helpful links below.

Instructions for Creating the Digital Media Toolkit
1) Create a new folder on your Desktop called 'Digital Media Toolkit'.
2) Put the 'OPEN ME FIRST' HTML (included with this email) into it.
3) Within that folder, create 2 new folders. One entitled 'PC' and
another entitled 'Mac OS'.
4) Download both Mac and PC versions of any of the software (both zipped using WinZip) and put them in these respective folders.

The software you will need can be found at:
http://www.nvu.com
http://www.picasa.com
http://gimp.org/
http://ascgen.jmsoftware.co.uk/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://creativecommons.org/tools/ccpublisher
http://www.flickr.com

Note that you can freely 'remix' the 'OPEN ME FIRST' file for your own programs!

Free Digital Media Tools

danielle martin — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:22:33 +0000

Many CTC VISTAs are challenged to develop curriculum for new digital media programs with both adults and youth, most on limited software and hardware budgets.

For instance, in 2005 VISTA Morgan Sully developed a Do-It-Yourself Media Toolkit to work with classes at SDTC / Digital Media Project in San Diego, using only a simple HTML start page and free tools.

Here's a spot to start sharing other free digital media resources and tools, especially ones that VISTAs have created in their year of service. Also, post up some examples of work created using these tools as well.