The Kansas City Public Library’s AmeriCorps VISTA program will soon come to a close.

Due to ongoing uncertainty around federal funding and the Library’s current strategic planning process, the program will end with the expiration of the final VISTA member’s contract in May 2026. 

Since 2014, when the Library became a partner in the 1960s-era federal program, over 150 people have served in its VISTA program either at the Library itself or at a partner nonprofit. 

“The Library VISTA project began out of the recognition that poverty should not determine access to knowledge, opportunity, or community,” says Mary Olive Joyce, director of outreach. 

Through the program, the Library piloted responsive services and programs that dismantled barriers to access and expanded the Library’s capacity to serve those most impacted by poverty. 

Early VISTA members initiated the development of programs that became the Summer Reading Summer Assistants program, Tech Access, the Kansas City Digital Media Lab (KCDML), RISE (Refugee & Immigrant Services & Empowerment), and the Community Resources team. Members demonstrated that these programs were not only possible but sustainable, and they are now embedded across departments and community partnerships. 

“The VISTA program allowed the Library to pilot innovative solutions to address the challenges Library patrons expressed,” says North-East Branch Manager Beccah Rendall, former AmeriCorps programs manager. “Having a dedicated person for a year allowed the Library to see if a program or service was a good solution,” she continues, “and it gave the Library time to secure buy-in and funding to continue.” 

The Library VISTA program served as an intermediary between AmeriCorps VISTA and the public, expanding VISTA members’ capacity-building skills to 15 nonprofits located across Kansas City, half of which have fewer than 10 full-time employees. 

“By stepping into this role [as intermediary], we multiplied the impact of service members, partnering with agencies across the metro to address poverty more broadly and collaboratively. This work not only extended the Library’s reach but also established many long-term partnerships that continue to thrive today,” says Joyce. 

True Light Family Resource Center is one of the Library program’s subsites and has only a few full-time staff members. During her year of service there, Sharon Efunobi recruited 50 volunteers who then contributed 315 hours of service to the site. Efunobi explains that she chose to serve [with] AmeriCorps to help at-risk individuals and families. 

“Having clients come back to tell me how my help has impacted their life for the better, and how they are so happy I was there at that time they were in need,” she says, “made me feel like I was making an impact with my service.” 

Since the Library VISTA program began, VISTA members have recruited 4,392 volunteers who contributed 37,308 hours of service. VISTA members have helped build local nonprofits' teams and strengthened their financial resources. In total, Library-based members have generated $1,580,791 through grants and cash donations for their sites, and $663,077 in in-kind donations. 

During Kyle Heflinger’s year of service at Don Bosco Community Centers, he organized the collection of $64,500’s worth of food from being thrown away. 

“My favorite memory has been from our produce deliveries. When the Centers have enough funding, we order fresh produce and deliver it to families throughout KC. The joy and excitement from the children at receiving a 'gift,' mixed with the appreciation of their parents, made me feel a sense of contentment and pride in the nonprofit system,” Heflinger says. 

Over the years, VISTA members have written grants, expanded services and resources, improved communication, fundraised, and established volunteer programs at nonprofits where the work might not have been possible otherwise. 

They made many major impacts, including on the Dunbar neighborhood of Kansas City (Heart of the City Neighborhood Association), on homeless outreach (Care Beyond the Boulevard), on violence prevention (MOCSA), on documenting Black history (Black Archives of Mid-America), and on environmental projects (Jerusalem Farm). 

Summer Associates 

The Library also supported the VISTA Summer Associate Program, offering a paid service opportunity to recent high school and college graduates, introducing them to the library profession, and fostering their passion for libraries. 

These associates helped expand the Summer Reading Program and assisted with other summer activities. Many participants went on to either serve in the year-long VISTA program or work at the Library. 

In 2023, the last year of the program, summer associates signed up thousands of patrons for Summer Reading, deployed the Library’s first patron demographics survey, and supported activities for teens and children. AmeriCorps shuttered the Summer Associate Program in 2024. 

MLK Day of Service 

In 2019, the Library AmeriCorps team organized the first hygiene supply drive. VISTA leader Kelly Berry suggested the idea after serving as a VISTA member with the Community Resources team and learning that patrons she worked with needed basic hygiene items. 

The hygiene drive turned into an annual event for the Library. Although often complicated by ice and snow (and a pandemic), the hygiene kit sorting day allowed AmeriCorps members across Kansas City to gather for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service. The Library collected hundreds of items and distributed dozens of hygiene kits to Library branches in 2025, with leftover items for distribution throughout the remainder of the year. 

VISTA Members 

The VISTA program also benefited its members personally and professionally. The program offered a unique opportunity for hands-on training and professional development. For those unsure of where they wanted to go after graduating, changing careers, or trying to get started in the nonprofit sector, the VISTA program offered purpose, direction, and practical job skills. 

Elinore Noyes says she didn’t know what to do after graduating from art school and found few job listings for artists. 

“I knew I wanted to help others, but I didn’t know how,” she says. “Working as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Flourish Furniture Bank equipped me with new skills to support nonprofits and other community initiatives.” 

During Noyes’ time at Flourish Furniture Bank, the organization went from furnishing 629 homes to 881, and a grant Noyes wrote won the organization $39,606. 

Former programs manager Rendall says she’s proud of how the program assisted members in their journeys. 

“We had people from all different walks of life serving their communities, from new graduates to career changers to retirees,” she says. “Their year of service often paved the way for their next chapter. Talking with members about their next steps and playing a small role in helping them get to where they wanted to go was a joy, and I am grateful to every person who allowed the Library VISTA Project to be a part of their path.” 

As many as 25 VISTA members served for multiple years at their site. Damon Patterson worked for two years at Heart of the City Neighborhood Association, where he researched the history of the Dunbar neighborhood and contributed to the preservation of the area. 

Patterson says, “I didn't know about VISTA and all the work being done in different communities prior to my service year. What I thought was just another job or volunteer opportunity has become much more than that to me.” 

Rendall emphasizes that members helped the communities with food or shelter but also assisted in ways that were not immediately visible, such as raising money, connecting to another VISTA site to provide wrap-around services, creating marketing plans, researching best practices, and designing programs. 

“The numbers look impressive when you put them all together, but the impact is greater than those numbers can ever show,” Rendall says. 

The Library would like to thank current members, alumni, VISTA supervisors, subsites, and everyone who supported the program over the past 11 years.