Beckley, WV | March 11, 2022 Stewards Individual Placements Program kicks off the celebration of 20 years of AmeriCorps VISTA programming during AmeriCorps week, March 13-19, 2022.

February 15th, 2022 | Over the weekend, ten volunteers from the West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) joined the Stewards Individual Placement to build dog houses for Dogs Under Cover.

January 21, 2021 | In early May 2020, Conservation Legacy was asked to pilot an AmeriCorps Contact Tracing program. Their Stewards Individual Placement Program was awarded funding to launch a VISTA Summer Associate (VSA) program that became known as the Colorado Containment Response Corps. Facing the urgent need for contact tracers, Conservation Legacy had to scale up quickly. Over the course of three weeks, they hired twelve former Corpsmembers and staff to implement the program and, out of more than 1,100 applicants, recruited 143 VISTA members. The group was diverse, including displaced PeaceCorps members, retirees, college students, stay-at-home parents, and AmeriCorps alums.

January 18th, 2022 | Working for a conservation nonprofit during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown me how much we are like water. Like water, our society has had to adapt to fill the container we put ourselves in. We are in the midst of a pandemic, so we adapt by changing how we work, and changing how we view work too. We have adopted better systems for showing up, doing what we can with the resources we have, and changing plans to keep ourselves and our volunteers safe.

September 26, 2019 | National Public Lands Day is being recognized Saturday at Little Beaver State Park, with stewardship projects and a celebration of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. 

The event is being hosted by Stewards Individual Placement Program and West Virginia Rivers Coalition. 

"West Virginia’s outstanding public lands are vital to the state; providing green spaces and acting as important economic drivers," the release said. "West Virginia would not have these special places without the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses revenue generated from federal oil and gas leases to purchase and maintain public lands."

September 4, 2019 | This month, Stewards Program Coordinator and former Klondike CVA, Allie Burdick, along with Communications Team member Amber Wong, sat down with Seattle Area National Park Sites (including Klondike) superintendent Charles Beall to talk about his positive experience working with four years of CVAs.

June 25, 2019 | Community Stewards Ambassador Morgan Brandenburg is featured on Fox4 Beaumont in preparation for her family fishing event on June 29th at Big Thicket National Preserve. At her event, Brandenburg will teach kids skills in line casting, knot tying, sport safety, fish identification, and size regulations before putting their lines in the water.

April 1, 2019 | Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold has declared April 2, 2019, as National Service Recognition Day in Beckley. “National Service is a vital resource for Beckley," Rappold said Monday at his office as he made the proclamation. “AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers make our counties better places to live.

"As mayor of Beckley, I am grateful for the dedication and sacrifice of these exceptional citizens, who are helping make Beckley stronger, safer and healthier."

Rappold joined thousands of other local leaders across the county who are part of a national, bipartisan effort to highlight the impact of national service in tackling local problems, according to April Elkins Badtke, Interim Executive Director of Stewards Individual Placement Program.

September 13, 2018 | The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation and the Stewards Individual Placement Program announced a strategic partnership to train AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA placements on how to better engage the communities in which they serve.

May 14, 2018 | After a short internship with the National Park Service during her senior year of college at the UW, Allison Burdick wasn't sure where she's end up. Like many college grads, Burdick tentatively ventured into the professional world, taking a corporate job at Starbucks in a field she didn't go to school for. When park ranger Kelsey Johnson offered her the chance to apply for a yearlong paid position at the National Park Service, she jumped on it.