Americorps VISTA
At United Way of King County, we’re all about alleviating poverty. Whether you’re interested in direct service or capacity building, we have a variety of ways you can help build a community where people have homes, students graduate and families are financially stable.
Americorps Opportunities
Our team of 100+ AmeriCorps members play a critical role in shaping our community. Whether behind the scenes planning or front-and-center with clients, they’re making King County a better place for all of us. Check out the different programs you could be part of:
Fuel Your Future
Our Fuel Your Future team is all about helping low-income kids get access to nutritious food. Whether they’re creating a fun environment for kids to have healthy summer meals or working with school administrators to bring well-balanced meals into the classroom, they’re on the ground making a difference.
Summer Program (8 — 10 Weeks)
In King County, 100,000 low-income children and teenagers rely on free or discounted meals during the school year, but less than 20% access free meals during the summer. This team deploys to free summer meal sites at parks, libraries, and community centers across King County to deliver free meals and educational activities to children and make sure families know about this important resource. Have fun in the sun while fighting summer hunger!
School Year Program (September — July )
This team transforms low-income schools into nutrition hubs for kids and families. As an FYF member, you and your cohort of 20 AmeriCorps members will develop programs where students have greater access to school meals, students receive strong nutrition education, and no kid is hungry. Work with school administrators to change how school meals are delivered and educate kids and families on health and nutrition.
Even Russell Wilson wants to help end childhood hunger! 
Benefits Hub
The Benefits Hub team increases financial stability for community college students and people experiencing homelessness. Responding to individual needs, members coach clients to find unique solutions to immediate housing and financial crisis. As resource experts, members also influence system change by launching college food pantries, free legal clinics, financial literacy workshops, and programs for formerly incarcerated students.
Vista Opportunities
We partner with dozens of VISTAs to work behind the scenes helping nonprofits build capacity and have greater impact. VISTAs lead programmatic change through work like needs assessment, evaluation, program development and implementation to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Through individually placed projects at partner agencies, VISTAs inform program decision making, learn and practice program coordination, and help agencies better serve their clients.
Some of the agencies our VISTAs have been placed include: Mary’s Place, Seattle Goodwill, King County Bar Association, FareStart, International Rescue Committee, and several Community Learning Centers
Understanding the Need in King County
- Record high homelessness. With more than 4,500 people unsheltered on any given night, the City of Seattle and King County declared a state of emergency in 2015.
- Kids live in poverty. 15% of all kids in King County live in poverty. The disparities are stark: 42% of African-American kids and 32% of Hispanic kids live in poverty.
- Students aren’t graduating. Dropout rates are high—today in King County there are 15,000 people ages 16–21 who are struggling. They have no high school credentials and no viable job prospects.
Americorps Members Are Making a Difference!
Our teams work hard—not only do they impact thousands of through their work every day, but they see progress being made on big community goals.
TAYLOR WELLS
“I love the difference we can make for low-income families. It makes me proud to work here.”
JOE LAMBRIGHT
“We give people and companies a way to connect to their community. People want to do good – and United Way makes it easy to do just that.”
Check out the different ways you can affect change.