We may be experiencing a new normal as summer rolls on, but service hasn't stopped. The VISTA Collaborative at WVU continues to find innovative ways to serve our community. Here are some VISTA service highlights from this past week:
VISTA AviElle has gathered various cardiovascular diseases mortality rate data, Health Professional Shortage Areas data, and the Area Health Resource File data (which contains information on health care professionals, mortality, disease, and many other demographic factors) for the Sociology and Anthropology Department's DataHeart Project. She then reformatted the data for both dashboard and analysis purposes and created a codebook to inform users of the dataset information and variable meanings. This data could potentially be used in a dashboard for nonprofits who need vital information to ensure better health outcomes in the future.
One of the newest VISTA members, VISTA Drew, who also serves with the DataHeart Project, started working on his first ever online dashboard with the help of VISTA Jacob, another member of this project. After spending the majority of his time in the first month learning about new software packages, it was a chance to put his new skills to use building capacity in the community. Dashboards are accessible to the public in order to access health information around the start of West Virginia.
VISTA Yaadieah at the Collegiate Recovery Program began to lead a weekly goal setting activity for summer programming and the activity has led her to a closer bond with the students, colleagues, and community members affiliated with the program because it gives them a chance to share about events that are going on in each other’s lives and it also offers motivation and peer support for personal improvement during social distancing. A student who participated in the program stated that the group is the most social support he gets throughout the week and that he looks forward to it.
AmeriCorps VISTA have continued to serve since the inception of the pandemic and will continue to serve into the school year mainly focusing on contact tracing on campus.
If you are interested in learning more about AmeriCorps VISTA and the VISTA Collaborative, direct questions to VISTA Leader C.C. Flight ccflight@mail.wvu.edu.