Local VISTA workers help solve community problems
By Tom Hill
Of Ih* KnwralH
Groups try inn to solve com*
munity problems are often Ion#
on enthusiasm but short on
knowing how to proceed. Help
ing groups like these get started
is the aim of the Lane County
VISTA Project. VISTA stands
for Volunteers In Service To
America.
The VISTA office, located at
the Eugene Family YMCA at
2055 Patterson St.. is part of a
federal program established in
1964 to combat poverty. Each
VISTA worker serves for at least
one year.
lane County VISTA, one of
16 in Oregon and alniut 500
across the country, matches
: VISTA workers with public and
private non-profit; groups
needing guidance. Kathy Ask.
the project's director, said the
VISTA workers’ Jobs are not to
participate in the. groups', actual
projects, but to help the groups
organize .and implement their
plans. The idea is to help the
groups become self-sufficient,
she said. '
She compared the relation
ship to a parent with a child
who does not know how to tie
his or her shoelaces.
"It 's'a heck of a lot faster just
. / to tie. them:yourself.-, but you
don't want to do. that all* the
• time I>ocause.yoO don’t want to
lie tying their shoes' for them
' when they're A teen-ager.”'
The temptation to biaome in
volved in the nuts arid boltsOf
programs js strong and can
decrease the VIST A workers' ef
fectiveness, she said.
Idealism and energy are im
portant for the workers, Ask
said. They work at least 40
hours a week and are always
considered on call, she said. In
addition, they must be good
communicators and listeners,
must be well-organized, and
above all, must be "people per
sons.” she said.
And they should not be too
concerned with getting rich,
she said. The workers are paid
$405 a month.
Although a large part of her
job involves dealing with mun
dane matters such as paper
work. Ask said the more en
joyable side is giving technical
help to the pregram workers. .
Ask said, she is disappointed
at dwindling budgets and
fading support for the National
VISTA program .within the
Keagan administration. The ad-'
ministration tried to phase o.ut .
VISTA but the action was block
ed by Congress, she said/
Even so. funding/leyels arid
the numlxtr of program workers
have dropped recently. For ex-,
ample, 5,000 people applied .for
VISTA jobs in log 1. compared
to a projected 2.500 for - fiscal
year l«M7v ‘. . ,
"It's frustrating.” shesaid !‘l :
think VlSTA is one. of th,e most
cos I - e If e ci i y fe- prog rtf m s
areu nd .*'■.• ’• .' / ■ / • ■ ’ •
The Lane County VISTA.Pro
ject has an annual budget of
about $ir>.do(). Ask said. Two
people work id the office; Ask . a
Ihree-quar}er t ime emplovee.
and a part-time clerical worker.
If the office received riuire
funds. Ask said she would like
her position to become full time
and would like to extend VISTA
services into rural areas such as
Oakridge and the McKenzie
River area.
Some examples of local
groups and programs VISTA
has worked with include:
•Senior Wheels: a transporta
tion service for senior citizens
in Cottage Grove.
•Organically Grown Inc.: a
farmer's marketing cooperative
in Eugene. • "
•The Patterson Pre-school
Cooperative: a parent-run day
care center.
•The Lane County Relief
Nursery: a month-old program
that helps parents learn dhild
raising techniques to.curb child
abuse: " ■" .';' •v..
•Parents Anonymous: a discus
sion group for parents who have
abused their children or fear
they may. . • . .
•W omens pace: a shelter, for bat
tered. women arid their children
that encourages the: women tp
support themselves after .they .
leave the shelter: . •. • ’
One point Of agreement is that
’the'VISTA worker’s job is not"
si mply To 'do th i’ngs‘for people.
The ,w p r k-e r v h e l-pM n. g
Worm; ns pace,'. Pamlynn Pegg,
said .''"This" is nipt a Case, where
. the' VISTA, (worker) .comes in .
.and’ solves people’ s", problems
for them.’-- • . • >. .. '
. 'Womenspace director • Ann
Tryk said. ''We learned long*
ago that doing tilings for people
.does little for them" in (be long
run. . ",
Pegg said one of her biggest
challenges is keeping the
members of the group interested
in contributing their efforts.
“Everyone would like to do it.
but they find reasons not to.”
she said. “They don't feel good
enough about themselves to
volunteer.”
Pegg admitted the low pay
workers receive sometimes
causes financial problems, but
said she never questions
whether the job is worth it..
Lee Pettigrew, a VISTA
worker for Parents Anonymous,
said many factors offset the low
pay. Among these are job
satisfaction, medical and dental
benefits, the chance to learn
about how the community
works and the chance to help
build a project from the ground
up, Pettigrew said.
VISTA workers also receive
federal job credit, which means
they move to the top of the list
for any federal job they are
qualified for, she said.
Witch
Continued from Page 4A
about why she identifies with witchcraft.
‘!I guess H'* the sense that th« world is being
snttn as alive. It was the sense of being an isolated
kid in the country and 1 could go outside and had
like I was communing with whatever was out
there." she says. «■
This connection to nature is at the heart of
witchcraft, she says. Queen explains that many
who call'themselves witches say they could talk
to animals who would approach She admits
there's no. way to make it sound not trite, but the
feelingthat everything is interconnected and One
makes anything possible.
“If I’m interconnected with the natural
world, then yeah, I can communicate with
things." she says.
"Witchcraft says everything is sacred, which
is analogous to the Native American belief that
the earth is sacred and holy.” she says.
Queen says that because of this, many en
vironmentalists are drawn to witchcraft.
"The highest (Milling of witchcraft is Karth
because she's the goddess," Queen says. "You
don't go around profaning Cod and you don't
profane the goddess."
Queen says witches will often get together
and focus on healing the world, on peace or on
"stopping that nuclear power plant from going
up."
Also, Queen says that many feminists are
drawn to witchcraft because the major religious
image is the goddess VVomenare'ableto get a
"sense of validat ion’.' that is not available in other
religions, like Christianity, where the ministry
was all-male until recently, she says.
•The large number ofdesbians associated with
witchcraft. — one coven in'Kugene is made up of
all lesbians -—.is a somewhat recent development.
Queen says.. ' •, ■; •’ -. •> ••'. V .
' "This i* pirtly _becaUse"only in the last 10
years has there boon an organized gay and lesbian
movement.” she says.o
She s«h*s these tools as merely props but they
are used as a means ‘to get down'real far into the
collective unconscious."
Queen now uses holy days like the summer
and winter .solstices to. celebrate her religious
community and devotion to the goddesses, but
this Wasn't always so.
“Before, I was real skeptical about all the
spiritual shit. 1 knew I liked everything I knew in
tellectually about witchcraft Hut people dancing
around the fin? and singing to goddesses, come
on!” she says.
“I finally decided to do it. There's no ex
plaining it — I can go around and say I'm con
nected to the rest of the world, but it wasn’t until I
did the rituals that 1 felt it as a real presence.” she
says.
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